CALIFORNIA, 
ROMANTIC  AND  BEAUTIFUL 


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CALIFORNIA 

ROMANTIC    AND    BEAUTIFUL 


The  History  of  its  Old  Missions  and  of  its  Indians ; 
A  Survey  of  its  Climate,  Topography,  Deserts, 
Mountains,  Rivers,  Valleys,  Islands  and  Coast 
Line;  A  Description  of  its  Recreations  and 
Festivals ;  A  Review  of  its  Industries ;  An  Ac- 
count of  its  Influence  upon  Prophets,  Poets, 
Artists  and  Architects ;  and  some  reference  to 
what  it  offers  of  delight  to  the  Automobilist, 
Traveller,  Sportsman,   Pleasure   and    Health    Seeker 


BY 

GEORGE   WHARTON  JAMES 

Author  of 
"Heroes  of  California,"  "The  Grand  Canyon  of  Arizona;  How  To 
See  It,"  "  The  Indians  of  the  Painted  Desert  Region,"  "  The  Fran- 
ciscan Missions  of  California,"     "The  Wonders  of  the  Colorado 
Desert,"    "Traveler's    Handbook    to   Southern   California,"    etc. 

With  a  map  and  seventy-two  plates, 
of  which  eight  are  in  colour 


THE     PAGE     COMPANY 
BOSTON    .^    MDCCCCXIV 


Copyright,  1914,  by 
The  Page  Company 

All  rights  reserved 


First  Impression,  October,  19 14 


THE   COLONIAL    PRESS 
C.    H.    8IMONDS    CO.,    BOSTON,    U.  S.  A. 


BY  WAY  OF  FOREWORD 


Romance  and  Beauty  are  words  inseparably  connected 
witETCalifornia.  It  is  impossible  to  dissever  them.  Many 
years  ago  Mrs.  Cyril  Flower  (nee  Lady  Constance  Roths- 
child) told  me  the  following  characteristic  story  of 
j  Joaquin  Miller,  the  Poet  of  the  Sierras.  It  was  at  the 
time  when  Mrs.  Langtry  was  in  the  height  of  her  fame 
and  all  London  was  anxious  to  meet  her.  The  poet  also 
was  very  popular  in  England,  and  Mrs.  Flower  planned 
a  great  reception  at  which  these  two  were  to  meet  as 
the  guests  of  honour.  Her  salon  was  one  of  the  gath- 
ering-places of  the  most  brilliant  men  and  women  of 
Europe  and  the  taste  and  fashion  of  the  country  assem- 
bled there.  When  Joaquin  was  personally  notified  by 
Lady  Constance  that  she  desired  his  presence,  he  coolly 
and  nonchalantly  asked  her  if  he  might  appear  dressed 
in  a  California  miner's  costume.  She  freely  gave  her 
gracious  consent. 

The  night  of  the  function  the  servitor  at  the  door 
was  almost  shocked  into  paralysis  when  Joaquin  ap- 
peared clothed  in  red  shirt,  blue  overalls,  and  high-heeled 
top-boots  with  his  trousers  legs  thrust  into  them.  He 
also  wore  his  high-crowned,  broad-brimmed  sombrero. 
Haughtily  he  was  bidden  go  to  the  back  door.  With 
equanimity  he  bade  the  '*  flunkey  "  tell  Lady  Constance 
that  "  Joaquin  Miller  was  at  the  door."  This  added  to 
the    door-keeper's    mental    disturbance,    especially    when 


2^525:^ 


vi  By  Way  of  Foreword 

his  lady  came  to  welcome  and  greet  the  guest  of  honour 
in  person.  Joaquin  asked  if  Lady  Constance  had  any 
objection  to  his  keeping  his  hat  on,  and  on  being  assured 
that  there  was  no  objection,  he  walked  into  the  midst 
of  the  gay  throng  in  the  most  imperturbable  fashion, 
retired  to  a  recessed  window  and  picked  up  a  book  to 
signify  that  he  desired  to  be  alone. 

By  and  by  Mrs.  Langtry  came,  and,  humouring  Joa- 

j  quin's  idiosyncrasy,  the  hostess  took  her  to  the  poet 
and  made  formal  presentation  of  the  one  to  the  other. 
When  Mrs.  Langtry  extended  her  hand  in  greeting  the 
poet  ignored  it,  and,  raising  both  hands  to  his  sombrero, 
took  it  from  his  head  with  a  swift  movement,  showering 
her  from  head  to  foot  with  fragrant  and  beautiful  rose 
leaves,  while  he  exclaimed :   "  The  greeting  of  the  miners 

(  of  California,  the  land  of  beauty  and  romance,  flowers 
and  song,  to  the  Jersey  Lily." 

A  poetic  greeting  and  an  individual  one  —  character- 
istic of  California,  in  the  simple,  exuberant  spontaneity 
of  the  poet's  action,  disregarding  all  precedent,  and  in 
its  perfect  appropriateness  in  spite  of  its  originality. 
Herein  lies  much  of  the  charm  of  California  itself.  It. 
is  original,  startling,  very  o'ften  exuberant,  but  always 
interesting  and  appropriate  because  sympathetic  to  every- 
thing natural  and  human. 

The  very  name  California  is  redolent  of  romance. 
Created,  literally,  for  a  romance,  it  has  not  only  never 
lost  its  original  flavour,  but  has  increased  it  as  the  years 
have  passed  and  it  has  come  to  designate  a  very  material 
country.  When  Ordonez  de  Montalvo,  about  the  year 
1 510,  wrote  his  fiction,  Sergas  de  Esplandian,  and  coined 
the  name  California  to  designate  an  imaginary  island 
"  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Indies,  very  near  the  Terres- 
trial Paradise,"  which  he  peopled  with  black  amazons, 


By  Way  of  Foreword  vii 

griffins  and  other  strange  creatures  of  his  exuberant 
fancy,  his  most  extravagant  dreams  never  conjured  forth 
such  a  land  as  Cahfornia  has  since  become.  No  one 
know^s  what  he  meant  by  the  name.  From  that  day  to 
this  more  or  less  ingenious  guesses  have  been  made  by 
etymologists  as  to  its  origin.  And  what  does  it  mat- 
ter, anyhow  ?  We  do  know  that  the  name  was  first  used 
by  Preciado,  who  wrote  the  diary  of  the  explorer,  Ulloa, 
to  designate  a  locality  first  named  Santa  Cruz  by  Cortes, 
in  May,  1535.  This  was  at  the  end  of  the  peninsula  of 
Lower  California.  Ulloa  sailed  up  the  Mexican  coast 
as  far  as  the  flood  waters  caused  by  the  Colorado  River, 
crossed  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  Gulf  of  California, 
and  sailed  down  the  coast  in  1539.  It  was  in  Preciado's 
account  of  this  trip  that  the  name  was  first  used  geo- 
graphically. Slowly  it  extended  to  the  whole  region  of 
the  peninsula;  finally  to  the  country  above,  so  that  the 
term  was  often  used  in  the  plural — Las  Californias. 

It  was  fitting  that  the  name  should  have  been  born 
in  a  romance,  for  ever  since  it  has  aroused  romantic 
thoughts  in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  heard  it.  To 
Cabrillo  belongs  the  honour  of  having  first  explored  its 
'magnificent  coast  line  in  1542-3,  though  the  name  was 
never  used  by  him.  In  1579  Sir  Francis  Drake,  that  gal- 
lant freebooter  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  called  it  New  Albion. 
The  captain  of  a  Spanish  galleon,  Francisco  Gali,  sailing 
from  the  Philippines,  was  carried  by  the  Japanese  current 
to  the  neighbourhood  of  Cape  Mendocino,  in  1584,  and 
sailed  southwards  to  Acapulco,  and  the  pilot,  Sebastian 
Rodriguez  de  Cermenon,  of  another  Philippine  vessel, 
struck  the  coast  above  Point  Reyes  in  1595.  Then  came 
Vizcaino,  the  man  who  gave  the  names  to  the  chief  points 
along  the  coast  from  San  Diego  up,  which  bay  he  en- 
tered in  November,  1603. 


viii  By  Way  of  Foreword 

From  this  time  on,  until  the  country  was  settled  by 
the  Franciscan  missionaries,  one  hundred  and  sixty  years 
later,  the  region,  though  well  known,  was  associated  wMth 
mystery  and  romance.  The  whole  world  thought  the 
country  an  island  and  that  a  great  strait,  which  was  even 
named  —  the  Strait  of  Anian  —  existed  from  the  Pa- 
cific to  the  Atlantic.  Many  a  daring  explorer  dreamed 
of  passing  through  this  strait,  and  one  mendacious  sailor, 
Maldonado,  actually  wrote  a  full  account  of  his  experi- 
ences in  going  through  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
to  be  followed  later  by  Juan  de  Fuca,  who  claimed  to 
have  gone  through  the  other  way,  while  in  1708,  some 
English  "  humourist  "  published  in  the  Monthly  Mis- 
cellany, London,  what  purported  to  be  the  letter  of  Ad- 
miral Bartholomew  de  Fonte,  describing  his  experiences 
in  search  of  this  "  strait  "  which  he  never  found. 

It  is  interesting  also  to  note  that  Dean  Swift,  in  his 
world-famous  satire,  Gulliver's  Travels,  located  the 
strange  country  in  which  the  adventurous  hero  had 
many  of  his  strangest  and  most  marvellous  experiences 
in  the  land  now  known  as  California,  or  a  little  north 
of  it. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  apparent  that  the  Cali- 
fornia liar  of  to-day  has  an  honoured  ancestry.  That 
is,  assuming  that  all  ancestry  is  honourable  so  long  as 
it  goes  back  far  enough. 

But  with  the  advent  of  the  expedition  of  Portola  and 
tlie  Franciscans  in  1769  California's  real  history  of  ro- 
mance began.  Serra  and  his  self-sacrificing  band  of 
Franciscans,  Portola  and  his  soldiers,  wrested  the  land 
from  the  imaginative  romancers  and  began  to  write  real 
history,  though  more  romantic  and  fascinating  than  the 
created  yarns  of  the  past.     In  slower  or  swifter  succes- 


By  Way  of  Foreword  ix 

sion  came  the  hunt  for  the  missing  Bay  of  Monterey, 
the  unexpected  and  unreahzed  discovery  of  the  Bay  of 
San  Francisco,  the  journey  across  the  wild  deserts  of 
Arizona  and  CaHfornia  of  Juan  Bautista  de  Anza,  the 
building  up  of  mission  after  mission,  the  martyrdom  of 
the  good  padre  Jayme  at  San  Diego,  the  establishment 
of  the  first  pueblos  or  towns,  the  coming  of  Russian, 
English  and  French  explorers  and  traders,  the  arrival 
of  trappers  from  across  the  plains,  and  the  pastoral  life 
of  the  Spanish  and  Mexican  Californians  so  graphically 
described  by  Gertrude  Atherton  in  her  Splendid  Idle 
'Forties.  Then  came  the  sudden  shock  of  American 
invasion,  the  first  and  abortive  raising  of  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  at  Monterey,  the  lowering  of  them  with  an  apol- 
ogy to  the  Mexican  government,  the  coming  of  Fremont, 
the  Bear  flag  revolution,  Sutter,  the  re-raising  of  the 
flag  at  Monterey,  —  this  time  for  good  and  all,  —  the 
disastrous  fight  of  Kearny  with  the  Californians  at  San 
Pasqual,  the  signing  of  the  treaty  at  Cahuenga,  the  quar- 
rel between  Kearny  and  Fremont,  the  establishment  of 
civil  government,  the  incoming  of  the  pioneers  prior  to 
the  discovery  of  gold,  the  horrors  of  the  Donner  Party's 
experiences,  the  discovery  of  gold,  the  influx  of  the  gold 
pioneers,  the  wild  romances  of  the  mining  camps,  the. 
dawning  of  the  morning  of  California  literature,  the  day 
of  the  cowboy,  the  development  of  San  Francisco,  the 
days  of  the  Vigilantes,  the  discovery  of  the  Comstock 
mines  in  Nevada,  the  excitement  of  the  Civil  War,  the 
Pony  Express,  the  Overland  Stage,  the  building  of  the 
Central  Pacific  Railway,  the  establishment  of  the  Over- 
land Monthly,  the  literary  advent  of  Bret  Harte,  Mark 
Twain,  Joaquin  Miller,  Ambrose  Bierce  and  others  of 
their  school,  the  agricultural  and  horticultural  develop- 
ments, America's  awakening  to  California's  scenic  and 


By  Way  of  Foreword 


climatic  allurements,  the  growth  of  modern  irrigation, 
the  reclamation  of  the  desert,  the  discovery  of  oil,  the 
earthquake  of  1906,  the  building  of  the  Panama-Pacific 
and  Panama-California  Expositions,  the  phenomenal 
growth  of  the  country  north  and  south  alike,  —  who  shall 
deny  the  romance  of  the  land? 

And  its  beauty  is  equally  insistent.  Sir  Francis  Drake 
thought  he  was  complimenting  it  to  call  it  New  Albion, 
because  it  reminded  him  of  the  "  tight  little  island  "  he  • 
loved  so  well,  but  when  French  and  Russian,  English  and 
American  began  to  describe  it,  —  even  though  they  knew 
little  or  nothing  of  it  except  its  coast  and  bay  regions, 
—  the  world  began  to  think  it  must  possess  a  beauty  all 
its  own.  But  it  was  not  until  after  Fremont  had  pub-( 
lished  his  reports,  and  trappers  had  returned  with  glow- 
ing accounts  of  its  climate,  and  gold  miners  and  those 
writers  who  accompanied  them,  began  to  tell  its  Sierran 
glories,  and  finally  its  own  discoverers  who  found  its  * 
Yosemites,  its  Sierran  peaks,  its  Islands  of  Summer,  its 
foothills,  its  Big  Trees,  its  redwood  forests,  its  floral 
beauties,  —  in  a  word  its  climatic  and  scenic  perfections 
in  that  it  was  a  cosmos  within  itself,  —  it  was  not  until 
these  began  to  sing  its  praises  that  the  world  really  awoke 
to  what  California  meant. 

There  are  doubtless  other  lands  as  beautiful  part  of 
the  time,  that  contain  scenery  equally  grand,  alluring, 
strange,  mysterious  and  attractive,  that  have  wonderful 
climates,  but  I  know  of  none  that  are  so  diversified  in 
their  beauty  and  that  have  so  much  of  it,  and  where  cli- 
mate so  fully  yields  of  its  multiform  delights. 

For  the  romance  of  its  climatic  cosmos   is   not  one 

whit  behind  that  of  its  topography.    Do  you  want  fierce, 

scorching,  dry  heat?     Death  Valley,  the  Mohave  and 

^  Colorado  deserts  can  satisfy  you.     Do  you  want  it  to 


By  Way  of  Foreword  xi 

be  moist,  foggy,  and  warm?  The  summers  in  the  for- 
ests and  near  the  ocean  in  the  northwestern  counties  of 
the  State  have  many  days  Hke  this.  Is  it  the  bracing 
cold  of  glaciers  and  snow-fields  you  long  for?  In  the 
high  Sierras  you  may  toboggan  on  glaciers,  ride  after 
horses  wearing  snow-shoes  over  ravines  two  hundred 
feet  deep  in  snow,  and  see  railway  snow-ploughs  pushed 
through  snow-drifts  thirty,  forty  or  more  feet  deep,  by 
eight,  ten,  a  dozen  or  more  of  the  Mogul  engines  espe- 
cially constructed  for  such  powerful  strains.  Is  it  vari- 
ety you  want?  You  may  tumble  in  the  snow,  toboggan 
and  sleigh-ride  on  Mount  Lowe,  on  New  Year's  Day, 
within  an  hour  stand  and  see  a  Carnival  of  Flowers  and  j 
a  Tournament  of  Roses,  where  millions  of  flowers,  of  in- 
finite variety,  are  used  to  decorate  floats,  carriages,  tally- 
hos,  automobiles,  etc.,  pass  by  in  the  streets  of  Pasadena,  i 
and  in  another  hour  be  sporting  in  the  not-too-cold  waters 
of  the  semi-tropical  Pacific,  enjoying  the  surf  of  Re- 
dondo,  the  roll  of  Long  Beach,  or  the  placid  waters  of 
Santa  Monica. 

While  the  people  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  are  cele- 
brating with  flowers  and  song,  fruit  and  wine,  those  of 
the  high  Sierras  are  enjoying  high  carnival  with  ice 
palaces,  toboggan  chutes  with  real  ice,  and  snow-shoe 
contests.  California  has  more,  and  more  varied,  festi- 
vals that  spring  naturally  out  of  her  climatic  gifts  than 
any  other  country  in  the  w^orld,  and  yet  the  spirit  of 
the  American  people  is  not  naturally  a  festive  and  gay 
spirit  like  that  of  the  French,  Spanish  and  Italian. 

One  of  the  greatest  romances  of  California  is  found 
in  the  way  the  changes  have  been  rung  upon  her  prod- 
ucts.    In  the  days  "  before  the  gringo  came  "  her  vast  \ 
areas  were  occupied  by  horses  and  cattle.     The  former 
were  for  use  and  pleasure,  the  latter  kept  mainly   for 


xii  By  Way  of  Foreword 


their  hides  and  tallow.  It  will  be  recalled  that  the  vessel 
on  which  Dana  made  his  memorable  Two  Years  Before 
the  Mast  trip,  was  a  New  England  trader  for  hides. 

The  first  Americans  to  intrude  into  this  land  of  pas- 
toral quietude,  of  manyana,  of  poco-tiempo,^  of  vast 
estates,  were  the  trappers,  soon  followed  by  the  path- 
finder, Fremont.  These  returned  to  the  United  States 
with  such  glowing  accounts  of  the  ideal  home-land  by 
the  sun-down  sea,  that  there  and  then  began  the  tide 
of  travel  of  home-seekers  that  has  gone  on  increasing 
as  the  years  have  rolled  by.  This  is  a  most  important 
fact  that  is  too  often  overlooked  —  that  while  it  was 
still  a  Mexican  province  California  began  to  call  to  the 
I  home-seekers.  The  Donner  Party  were  home-seekers, 
•  for  gold  was  not  discovered  until  long  after  they  had 
passed  their  Garden  of  Gethsemane  on  the  frozen  snow- 
clad  slopes  of  the  Eastern  Sierras. 

Then  came  the  Military  invasion  that  followed  the 
outbreak  of  the  Mexican  war,  and  Polk  had  his  heart's 
desire  in  the  seizure  of  California. 

Almost  immediately  followed  the  discovery  of  gold, 
when  every  other  object  and  subject  was  driven  out  of 
the  minds  of  men,  and  gold,  gold,  gold,  GOLD,  was 
their  sole  cry. 

But  even  this,  in  time,  became  an  old  story,  and  in 
the  process  a  few  Americans  took  a  leaf  of  wisdom  from 
the  books  of  the  Mexicans,  though  they  read  into  it  far 
more  golden  profit  than  the  natives  had  ever  dreamed 
of.  They  filled  the  rich  valleys  with  herds  of  cattle, 
which  they  fattened  as  rapidly  as  they  could  and  then 
drove  to  the  mines  to  exchange  for  the  dust  and  nuggets 
the  del  vers  into  the  earth  had  wrested  from  the  virgin 
soil. 

^Manyana,  to-morrow;  poco-tiempo,  in  a  liUle  while. 


By  Way  of  Foreword  xiii 

Almost   immediately   another   change   came.      Wheat  ] 
became  king.     The   Sacramento   and  the   San  Joaquin 
Valleys  were  sowed  to  wheat  and  developed  into  such 
vast  wheat-fields  as  the  world  had  never  before  dreamed 
of.     Elsewhere  I  have  quoted  Frank  Norris's  vivid  pic-  / 
tures  of  this  great  industry. 

Then  came  the  spread  of  irrigation.  Wheat  was  de- 
throned, and  the  new  king  became  Water.  Irrigation 
speedily  grew  to  be  the  watchword  and  oranges,  lemons, 
grapefruit,  grapes,  olives,  almonds,  walnuts,  prunes, 
peaches,  apricots,  figs,  apples,  pears  and  a  score  and  one 
fruits  sprang  into  importance —  lOO  carloads  this  year, 
500  the  next,  1,500  the  third,  5,000  the  fourth  and  so 
on,  until  California  fruits  and  vegetables,  fresh,  dried, 
and  canned,  entered  all  the  markets  of  the  civilized  world. 
Canneries  sprang  up  everywhere,  and  it  was  the  Cali- 
fornia canneries  that  tangled  up  the  Englishman.  Some 
wit  said  to  him,  pointing  to  the  thousands  of  sealed  cans 
of  fruit  in  one  of  the  factories :  "  You  see,  we  eat  all 
we  can,  and  we  can  all  we  can't."  When  he  returned 
to  his  hotel  he  could  not  refrain  from  telling  his  wife 
and  friends  the  clever  saying  of  his  California  guide : 
"  You  know,  he's  an  awfully  clevah  chap.  Pointing  to 
the  tins  of  fruit  he  said,  '  We  eat  all  we  can,  and  v/e 
tin  all  the  rest.'  "  His  friends  are  still  wondering  where 
the  laugh  comes  in.  The  Californians,  however,  know 
that  it  is  "  canned." 

A  California  governor  in  the  early  '6o's  introduced 
alfalfa,  and  ever  since  then  it  has  been  growing  in  im- 
portance as  a  feed  crop,  and  now  it  is  no  exaggeration 
to  say  that  millions  of  tons  are  raised  in  California  and 
fed  to  dairy  cows,  to  stock  for  the  meat  market,  and 
to  horses. 

Now  dates  and  cotton  are  springing  into  importance. 


xiv  By  Way  of  Foreword 

with  Berniuda  onions,  sweet  potatoes,  celery  and  aspar- 
agus. Cantaloupes,  water-melons  and  catawbas  are  being 
grown  by  the  thousands  of  acres,  and  the  two  former 
shipped  by  the  thousands  of  carloads,  and  new  fruits 
and  vegetables  are  being  sought  for  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  acclimated  and  made  into  profitable  crops.  In 
addition  Luther  Burbank  is  mastering  the  natural  laws 
of  plant  selection,  so  that  he  is  improving  the  quality 
of  fruits,  vegetables  and  flowers  to  such  an  extent  that 
to  the  world  at  large  his  results  savour  of  wizardry. 
Women,  too,  as  Theodosia  B.  Shepard  at  Ventura,  and 
Kate  Sessions  at  San  Diego,  with  others  equally  apt  and 
skilled  in  the  north,  are  doing  the  same  thing  with  flow- 
ers and  rare  desert  plants,  and  so  the  good,  delightful 
and  profitable  work  goes  on. 

Granted  that  there  is  much  commercialism  in  all  these 
things,  is  there  no  romance  also?  He  who  sees  in  De 
Lesseps's  achievement  of  the  Suez  Canal,  and  our  own 
Goethals's  triumph  at  Panama,  nothing  but  triumphant 
commercialism  is  to  be  pitied  for,  though  at  the  same 
time  educated  out  of,  his  narrow  and  limited  vision. 

In  its  population,  also,  California  is  romantic  in  the 
extreme.  We  hear  of  cities  that  are  more  or  less  cos- 
mopolitan —  London,  Paris,  New  York,  New  Orleans, 
San  Francisco  —  but  here  a  whole  State  is  cosmopolitan, 
and  in  a  far  broader  sense  than  the  cities  named.  For 
in  California  peoples  from  every  quarter  of  the  earth 
have  come  —  not  as  visitors  —  but  to  make  their  homes. 
The  cold-blooded  Yankee,  the  warm  and  impulsive  South- 
erner, the  calculating  mid-westerner  of  our  own  United 
States,  the  Norwegian,  Swede,  Dane,  Finn  and  Pole 
from  the  North,  meet  the  Italian,  Portuguese,  Spaniard 
and  Greek  of  the  South,  of  Europe,  and  here  are  Chinese, 
Japanese,  Korean  and  Hindoo,  making,  with  the  orig- 


By  Way  of  Foreword  xv 

inal   aborigine   and   the   later   Spanish   and    Mexican,    a   <■ 
heterogeneous    population    not    found    elsewhere    in    the 
world  of  men. 

One  singular  fact  obtrudes  itself  upon  my  thoughts 
here,  viz.,  that  in  spite  of  their  keen  desire  to  add  to  the 
desirable  populaition  of  the  State  —  especially  in  the 
agricultural  sections  —  the  intelligent  business  men  of 
California,  the  State  officials,  the  railv/ay  managers,  the 
real  estate  promoters,  the  colonizers,  have  never  engaged 
in  any  sensible,  far-reaching,  rational  scheme  for  the 
capturing  for  the  State  of  these  desirable  elements.  Fed- 
eral reports  show  that  there  went  from  the  United  States 
into  Canada  the  following  immigrants  in  the  years 
named,  w^ith  wealth  per  capita  as  indicated : 


Year 

Number  of 

Wealth  per 

Total  value  in 

immigrants 

capita 

effects  and  cash 

1906 

63,782 

$  809 

$  51,599,638 

1907 

56,687 

885 

50,167,995 

1908 

57,124 

1,125 

65,806,848 

1909 

90,996 

811 

73,797,756 

1910 

124,602 

1,061 

132,202,722 

1911 

131,114 

1,539 

201,784,446 

A  total  for  six  years  of  524,305  immigrants  lost  to  the 
United  States,  taking  Avith  them  a  per  capita  average 
wealth  of  $1,097,  totalling  in  this  period  the  enomious 
sum  of  $575,359,405,  or  over  hcdf  a  billion  dollars. 

It  is  true  that  California  has  spent  much  money  in 
advertising,  but  it  has  not  been  by  the  State,  nor  on  a 
large  and  intelligent  scale.  Surely  the  time  is  approach- 
ing when  a  systematized  effort  will  be  made  to  reach 
every  farming  community  in  the  land  that  may  have 
families  to  spare  —  aye,  and  then  let  us  reach  over  for 
the  same  class  from  Europe. 


XVI 


By  Way  of  Foreword 


For  California  needs  such  accessions.  Even  to  equal 
the  population  of  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Ver- 
mont, Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  Maryland,  Delaware, 
New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  whose  combined  areas 
total  149,945  square  miles,  compared  with  California's 
158,360  square  miles,  California  must  multiply  her  pres- 
ent population  thirteen  times. 

The  British  Isles,  with  an  area  of  121,377  square 
miles,  supports  a  population  of  45,008,421.^  In  other 
words,  with  37,000  acres  less  of  land  it  supports  over 
eighteen  times  the  population. 

To  the  blase  traveller  of  Europe  and  even  of  our  own 
Eastern  States,  one  of  the  striking  things  about  Cali- 
fornia —  town  and  country  alike  —  is  its  newness. 
There  is  nothing  ancient.  Were  it  not  for  the  moun- 
tains and  the  beach,  the  scarred  foothills,  the  islands, 
and  the  ancient  trees  in  the  forests  of  sequoia  one  might 
feel  that  he  must  be  careful  not  to  touch  anything  or  the 
wet  varnish  —  not  yet  dried  - —  would  stick  to  his  fin- 
gers. Even  the  old  Spanish  towns  —  San  Diego,  Los 
Angeles,  San  Jose,  San  Francisco,  Santa  Barbara  — 
were  founded  less  than  a  century  and  a  half  ago;  and 
the  earliest  of  the  American  towns,  Stockton,  Marysville, 
Oakland,  Jamestown,  Sonora,  date  no  further  back  than 
1849  ^"d  1850,  or  thereabouts.  But  every  one  of  these 
older  towns  of  the  State  is  now  in  an  almost  feverish 
condition  of  youthful  growth.  San  Diego  has  sprung 
from  about  35,000  population  less  than  four  years  ago 
to  over  100,000  to-day,  and  by  the  time  these  written 
words  are  in  type  the  statistics  will  be  out  of  date  and 
need  to  be  revised.  So  with  Oakland  and  Los  Angeles, 
Santa  Barbara,  San  Jose  and  the  rest.  "  Change,"  but 
certainly  not  "  decay."  all  around  we  see,  the  sun  smiles 
'  OflScial  Statistics  of  igog. 


By  Way  of  Foreword  xvii 

stimulatingly,  God's  in  his  heaven,  so  most  Californians 
feel  ''  all's  right  with  the  world." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  I  have  quoted  a  good  deal  of 
poetry.  I  would  also  have  it  noticed  that  it  is  good 
poetry.     Furthermore  that  it  is  all  by  California  poets. 

Herein  is  a  marvellous  tribute  to  California.  The 
world  loves  to  gaze  upon  the  pictures  of  Beatrice  be- 
cause she  inspired  much  of  Dante's  sublimest  verse.  So 
with  Elizabeth  Barrett,  and  scores  of  others  that  may 
be  named.  Italy  and  Switzerland  have  inspired  their « 
great  poets,  hence  the  world  flocks  to  see  them.  Cali- 
fornia, though  new,  is  not  one  whit  behind  these  in  the  / 
power  of  her  inspiration.  Her  singers  have  been  more 
natural,  more  exuberant,  less  restrained  and  academic 
than  those  of  any  land  yet  known  to  history,  and  they 
have  sung  a  larger  truth  into  the  inner  consciousness  of 
the  thoughtful  world,  in  that  they  have  set  a  new  stand- 
ard, viz.,  that  pure  naturalness  is  to  be  preferred  to 
conventional  artificiality,  that  spontaneous  expression  is 
ever  superior  and  more  to  be  desired  than  laboured  and 
studied  formal  periods. 

There  is  one  thing  that  no  reader  of  these  verses  or 
prose  poems  can  ever  be  in  doubt  about.  That  is  the  deep 
and  genuine  love  the  writers  have  borne  to  the  land 
of  their  song^s.  Indeed  I  venture  the  assertion  that 
there  is  one  way,  and  one  way  only,  to  know  and  under- 
stand California.  That  is  the  way  of  love.  One  hour 
of  love  will  reveal  more,  grasp  more,  comprehend  more 
than  a  year  of  critical  study.  Hence  to  those  who  come 
to  California  for  the  first  time  "  Yield  yourself  to  love," 
I  would  say.  Then  understanding  and  knowledge  will 
flow  in  like  a  great  on-moving  river.  If  you  take  the 
critical  attitude  —  which  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  is  the 
ignorant  attitude  —  the  antagonism  set  up  renders  sym- 


xviii  By  Way  of  Foreword 

patlietic  understanding  impossible.  Start  out  with  the 
desire  to  know  and  love  it  all.  Does  it  rain?  Let  it 
rain.  Are  you  crossing  the  desert?  So  be  it,  you  wel- 
come the  desert  and  open  your  heart  and  mind  fully  to 
all  its  impressions,  without  prejudice  or  assumption  that 
you  need  "  see  nothing  further  to  know  you  don't  like 
it."  The  mediocre  commonplaces  that  everybody  sees 
and  goes  into  raptures  over  —  the  flowers,  the  orange 
groves,  the  far-away  snow-clad  mountains,  the  revela- 
tions of  the  glass-bottomed  boats,  the  sunrises  and  sun- 
sets, the  fine  homes  —  what  are  these  that  you  should 
judge  a  country  by  them  alone?  Every  mental  baby 
accepts  their  charm,  yields  to  their  seductions,  acknowl- 
edges their  power. 

Go  further!  Seek  more!  Demand  more.  Get  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  country.  Understand  its  genius, 
grasp  its  spirit,  comprehend  its  universality  and  cosmo- 
politanism, survey  its  all-embracing  life,  feel  its  free- 
dom, revel  in  its  indifference  to  precedent,  absorb  its 
individuality,  bask  in  its  sturdiness.  turn  your  eyes  to 
its  manifold  facets,  drink  from  its  endless  variety  of 
life-giving  streams,  yield  yourself  to  the  abandon  of 
its  healthful  naturalism,  —  in  other  words  let  the  exu- 
berant flood  of  spontaneous  life  flow  through  you,  and 
thus  you  will  speedily  know  the  real  California,  the  nat- 
ural home  of  beauty,  rcwnance,  and  abundant  life. 

It  is  this  yielding,  this  living  in  a  lovingly  receptive 
condition  that  has  brought  into  existence  what  every 
stranger  to  the  State  discovers  the  day  of  his  arrival. 
This  is  the  fact  that  every  Californian  is  a  "  booster." 
I  do  not  like  the  v/ord  booster,  but  the  idea  is  indis- 
putable. Why  is  it?  Is  every  man  a  liar  when  he 
boasts  about  California?  Tliat  were  indeed  a  sad  low- 
ering of  manhood's  standards. 


By  Way  of  Foreword  xix 

No !  Every  man  shouts  aloud,  sounds  the  loud  tim- 
brel for  the  Golden  State,  because  he  believes,  he  feels, 
he  realizes,  he  knows  that  what  he  says,  in  the  great 
broad  view  of  things,  is  true.  California's  atmosphere 
is  balmy,  its  valleys  and  foothills  arc  health-giving,  its 
fields  are  marvellously  fertile,  its  climate  is  incompara- 
ble, its  opportunities  are  endless,  its  successes  are  won- 
derful, its  triumphs  are  great,  its  possibilities  are  glori- 
ously alluring.  There  is  foothold  for  ten  millions  more, 
who  may  come  and  enjoy  all  it  has  to  give,  and  steps 
up  which  they  may,  each  and  every  one,  climb  to  higher, 
bigger,  better,  grander,  nobler  things.  Then  why 
shouldn't  those  who  have  climbed,  or  who  are  climbing, 
give  encouragement  to  others?  This  is  so  preeminently 
the  California  attitude  that  it  is  worthy  of  note  as  an- 
other of  the  romantic  facts  which  cannot  be  ignored. 

The  State  is  a  large  one.     Its  area  is  vast.     Even  the 
Britisher  will  concede  that  when  he  realizes  that  it  is   , 
much  larger  than  the  whole  of  England,  Scotland,  Ire- 
land and  Wales.     Our  Eastern  brothers  scarcely  realize  4  J/"' 
that  it  is  larger  than  all  New  England,  New  York  and  ; 
Pennsylvania  combined.     Hence  it  must  not  be  thought 
that  in   this   one   small   volume   I  have  attempted   ade- 
quately to  describe  it.     My  highest  expectation  is  that 
in  these  pages  I  have  given  a  fuller  and  more  compre- 
hensive view  than  most  people,  even  Californians,  have 
yet  taken.     How   far  I  have   succeeded,   and  to  what 
extent  I  have  interpreted  the  spirit  of  California  and 
its  allurements  my  readers  must  detennine. 


Pasadena,  June  i,  19 14. 


lu....', 


i-  ' '    ■• 

, 

."^* 

■> 

-       .'•'.^»'.    ^ 

.  -y  •     ' 

CONTENTS 


By  Way  of  Foreword v 

I.     Glimpses  of  the  Land i 

II.     California's  Romance  and  Beauty        .       .  20 

III.  Under  the  Tread  of  Indian  Feet         .       .  28 

IV.  Franciscan  Missions  of  California      .       .  38 
V.     California,  the  Land  of  Prophecy       .       .  64 

VI.    On  the  Heights .76 

VII.     On  Mountain  Trails 105 

VIII.    The  California  Coast 120 

IX.    The  Channel  Islands 145 

—  ^^  X.     California's  Climate 163 

— •      XL    In  and  Around  the  Golden  Gate  .       .       .  171 
XII.     From  the  State  Capital  at  Sacramento  to 

Mt.  Shasta i83 

XIII.  From  Sacramento  to  Kern  through  the  San 

Joaquin  Valley 204 

XIV.  The  Yosemite  Valley 218 

XV.    The  Lake  Tahoe  Region 235 

XVI.    Southern  California 248 

XVII.    In  and  Around  Los  Angeles    .       .  .261 

XVIII.    The  Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United 

States 275 

XIX.  The  California  Deserts  and  Their  Recla- 
mation, WITH  Especial  Reference  to  Im- 
perial, COACHELLA  AND  AnTELOPE  VaLLEYS  294 

XX.    In  the  Smaller  Valleys  of  the  North  and 

V                      South 315 

\.XXI.    The  Forests  of  Californla      ....  327 


XXll 


Contents 


CHAPTER 

-     XXII.     The  Flowers  of  California 

'  XXIII.     California's  Universities,   Colleges  and 

Observatories 

xxiv.    automobiling  in  california  .... 
XXV.    The  Festival  Spirit  in  California    . 
XXVI.    The  Influence  of  California  upon  Lit- 
erature      

XXVII.     California's  Influence  upon  Art 
XXVIII.     California's  Domestic  Architecture 
XXIX.    The  Journey  to  California  .... 

Bibliography 

Index     


333 

349 
359 

373 

380 

393 
400 
406 
413 
417 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Island 


Califor 


El  Capitan,  Yosemite  Valley  {In  full  colour).     (See 
page  226) Frontispiece 

MAP   OF   CALIFORNIA 

A  Flock  of  Sheep 

A  Beautiful  Home,  Santa  Barbara 

The  Training  Ship,  "  Independence,"  Mare 

The  Sacramento  River,  Red  Bluff 

The  Bay,  Monterey 

In  the  Residence  Section,  Oakland 

"  Winter's  Sunshine  Crown  in  Southern 
NiA  "  {In  full  colour) 

The  San  Joaquin  River      .... 

The  Site  of  the  Junipero  Oak  Mission 

The  Chimes,  San  Gabriel  Mission 

"  Man's  hand  guiding  the  driving  plough  ' 

An  Orange  Orchard 

Mt.  St.  Helena 

Lake  Spaulding 

The  American  River 

Along  Glacier  Trail 

Mt.  Wilson 

MossBRAE  Falls,  Shasta  Springs 

Benicia 

An  Old  Adobe  House,  SOxVoma 

Point  Concepcion  Lighthouse  . 

Yellow  -  tail  Salmon  and  Black  Sea  -  bass 

Santa  Catalina 

A  Glass  -  bottomed  Boat 


I 
2 

4 

8 

12 

15 

18 

25 

33 

SO 

60 

67 

71 

^Z 

95 

103 

108 

III 

IIS 
122 
128 

13s 
141 

147 
149 


xxiv  List  of  Illustrations 

PAGE 

Landing  a  Swordfish,  Catalina 152 

Chariot  Race,  Tournament  of  Roses,  Pasadena  {In 

full  colour) 164 

Wine  Press  Statue,  Golden  Gate  Park      .       .  179 

The  Fairmont  Hotel,  San  Francisco     ....  182 

Lake  Merritt,  Oakland             184 

House  -  boats,  Alameda 186 

The  Capital,  Sacramento 188 

Sutter's  Fort 190 

A^'GoLD  Dredger 192 

The  Sacramento  River 198 

Castle  Crags 201 

Mt.  Shasta,  Looking  up  the  Sacil-^mento  Canyon     .  203 

A  Harvester 206 

Seedless  Grapes 209 

Entrance  to  Kearney  Park 212 

A  Wheel  Cart  Picking  up  a  Load  of  Logs       .       .  215 

Curry's  Camp 227 

Lake  Tahoe,  from  the  Cave  Rock  Road  (In  full  colour)  235 

Mt.  Tallac  and  Fallen  Leaf  Lake       ....  244 
The  Court  of  the  Birds,   Glenwood  Mission  Inn 

(In  full  colour) 253 

The  Chapel,  Glenwood  Mission  Inn     ....  258 
Mahruos,  the  Arabian  Stallion  of  the  Santa  Anita 

Ranch  {In  full  colour) 260 

Almonds 265 

Mt.  Lowe  Railway 272 

A  Home  in  Beautiful  Pasadena 274 

An  Avenue  of  Palms 276 

Aryan  Memorial  Temple  and  Raja  -  Yoga  College, 

International  Theosophical  Headquarters,  Point 

LoMA  {In  full  colour)         .... 

Egyptian  Corn 

El  Centro       

An  Irrigating  Canal,  Imperial  Valley 
Cutting  Alfalfa    . 


291 
296 
303 
305 
309 


List  of  Illustrations  xxv 

PAGE 

A  Hop  Field 316 

Shasta  Springs,  Shasta  County 318 

A  Vineyard 320 

Pebble    Beach   Lodge,    on    the    "  Seventeen    Mile 

Drive  " 328 

Cross  -  cutting  a  Redwood  Tree 330 

The  Joseph  Hooker  Oak 332 

Yucca  Trees 342 

Mechanics  Building,  University  of  California        .  349 

The  Lick  Observatory 355 

The  Sacramento  Canyon 368 

The  First  Theatre  in  California 370 

The  Raisin  Festival,  Fresno 376 

A  Placer  Hydraulic  Mine 381 

Stevenson's  Home,  Monterey 398 

Artistic  Homes,  Piedmont 403 

The  Grand  Canyon  {In  full  colour)         ....  408 


BtOL 


CALIFORNIA, 

ROMANTIC  AND  BEAUTIFUL 


CHAPTER    I 

GLIMPSES    OF    THE    LAND 

For  years  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  no 
one  person  knoivs  Cahfornia.  It  is  too  great,  too  vast, 
too  varied  for  any  one  man  to  do  more  than  begin  to 
know  it.  Hence  the  title  to  this  chapter.  We  may 
only  "  glimpse  "  it.  The  traveller  coming  over  its  bor- 
ders by  way  of  the  "  Sunset  Route  "  of  the  Southern 
Pacific  sees  the  Colorado  River  —  its  boundary-line  sep- 
arating it  from  Arizona  —  at  Yuma,  and  then  enters . 
a  barren  land  of  sand  hills,  rugged  mountains,  colour- 
ful and  dream-like  in  the  early  morning  and  sunset 
hours,  but  otherwise  entirely  strange,  weird,  desolate 
and  foreign  to  anything  the  Eastern  or  European  eye 
has  before  gazed  upon.  When  he  reaches  the  Salton 
Sea  he  has  a  surprise.  To  find  an  inland  ocean  within 
such  an  environment  is  a  physiographic  anomaly  —  he 
cannot  grasp  it.  But  before  he  has  overcome  this  as- 
tonishment he  finds  himself  passing  through  the  Coa- 
chella  Valley,  where  the  date-palm  flourishes,  and  —  if 
he  has  travelled  in  the  Orient  —  he  looks  for  tents  of 
Arabs,  camels,  caravans  and  all  the  picturesque  life  of 

1 


CALIFORNIA, 

ROMANTIC  AND  BEAUTIFUL 


CHAPTER    I 

GLIMPSES    OF    THE    LAND 

For  years  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  saying-  that  no 
one  person  knows  Cahfornia.  It  is  too  great,  too  vast, 
too  varied  for  any  one  man  to  do  more  than  begin  to 
know  it.  Hence  the  title  to  this  chapter.  We  may 
only  "  glimpse  "  it.  The  traveller  coming  over  its  bor- 
ders by  way  of  the  "  Sunset  Route  "  of  the  Southern 
Pacific  sees  the  Colorado  River  —  its  boundary-line  sep- 
arating it  from  Arizona  —  at  Yuma,  and  then  enters , 
a  barren  land  of  sand  hills,  rugged  mountains,  colour-" 
ful  and  dream-like  in  the  early  morning  and  sunset 
hours,  but  otherwise  entirely  strange,  weird,  desolate 
and  foreign  to  anything  the  Eastern  or  European  eye 
has  before  gazed  upon.  When  he  reaches  the  Salton 
Sea  he  has  a  surprise.  To  find  an  inland  ocean  within 
such  an  environment  is  a  physiographic  anomaly  —  he 
cannot  grasp  it.  But  before  he  has  overcome  this  as- 
tonishment he  finds  himself  passing  through  the  Coa- 
chella  Valley,  where  the  date-palm  flourishes,  and  —  if 
he  has  travelled  in  the  Orient  —  he  looks  for  tents  of 
Arabs,  camels,  caravans  and  all  the  picturesque  life  of 

1 


2        California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Sahara,  Egypt  or  the  Persian  Gulf.     He  sees  the  trans- 
formation of  the  desert  going  on,  more  wonderful  and 
surprising    to    the    intelligent    mind    than    the    marvels 
achieved  by  rubbing  the  celebrated  lamp  of  Aladdin. 
Ere  these  wonders  have  fully  "  seeped  in,"  he  crosses 

/  the  San  Gorgonio  pass,  between  two  majestic  mountain 
ranges.  An  hour  ago  he  was  below  sea-level.  Now,  at 
about  2,808  feet,  the  San  Jacinto  range  towers  up  10,805 
feet  to  his  left,  w^hile  the  San  Bernardino  range,  with 
its  snow-clad  San  Gorgonio  peak,  rises  11,725  feet  into 
the  pure  blue  of  the  California  sky.  In  less  than  an 
hour  he  has  descended  on  the  other  side  of  the  pass 
and  is  within  what  Lillian  Whiting  calls  "  the  Land  of 

I  Enchantment."  For  here  are  orange  groves  in  full 
bloom,  together  with  green  and  ripe  fruit  upon  the  trees 
at  the  same  time.  Snow-clad  peaks  greet  the  uplifted 
eye  in  every  direction,  yet  the  atmosphere  is  warm  and 
summery.  Everything  is  richly  green  and  profusely 
flowered ;  the  orchards  are  charming  and  redolent  of 
blossom,  —  pear,  peach,  apricot,  almond,  prune,  fig, 
nectarine,  loquat,  guava,  lemon,  olive,  pomegranate  and 
every  ordinary  and  rare  fruit-bearing  tree  abounding. 
'Miles  of  vineyard  stretch  their  vivid  green  in  the  search- 
ing sunlight,  and  thousands  of  acres  of  alfalfa  account 
for  the  immense  herds  of  cattle  that  graze  in  fenced 
fields,  and  the  gigantic  stacks  of  hay  that  abound.  His 
train  dashes  through  large  and  prosperous-looking 
towns;  he  reaches  the  metropolis  of  the  southern  por- 
tion of  the  State,  Los  Angeles ;  he  sees  its  wide  expanse 
on  the  banks  of  an  almost  dry  river,  and  listens  with 
incredulous  amazement  to  stories  of  the  fierce  floods 
that  dashed  through  these  now  dry  banks  after  the 
heavy  rains  of  1889  and  1914.  For  a  few  days  an 
automobile  takes   him    through   the   business,    residence 


Glimpses  of  the  Land 


and  oil  sections  of  Los  Angeles,  and  he  finds  a  mar- 
vellous city,  grown  from  a  Mexican  pueblo  of  early 
California  times.  Thirty  years  ago  it  had  a  population 
of  but  little  more  than  twelve  thousand  and  without  a 
single  mile  of  paved  street.  Now  it  is  a  cosmopolitan 
city  of  over  half  a  million,  wit)i  nearly  seven  hundred 
miles  of  paved,  graded  and  gravelled  streets. 

lie  is  taken  down  to  its  beach  towns  on  the  shores 
of  the  Sunset  Sea.  Rapidly,  in  turn,  Santa  Monica, 
Ocean  Park,  Venice,  Manhattan,  Playa  del  Rey,  Her- 
mosa,  Redondo,  Cliffton,  San  Pedro,  Wilmington,  Long 
Beach,  Alamitos,  Huntington,  Balboa,  Newport  and 
Laguna  are  revealed  to  him,  with  a  score  of  smaller  and 
newer  beach  settlements  springing  up  between  them. 

Then,  resuming  his  ride  on  the  "  Road  of  the  Thou- 
sand Wonders,"  he  passes  through  the  San  Fernando 
Valley,  catches  a  glimpse  of  new  towns  that  have  sprung 
up  over-night  by  magic  at  the  promise  of  the  water 
being  brought  over  the  Sierra  Nevadas  from  Owen's 
River  to  Los  Angeles,  a  distance  of  226  miles,  at  a 
cost  to  that  city  of  twenty-four  millions  of  dollars. 

Through  the  Santa  Susanna  tunnels  he  is  carried  out 
into  the  sugar-beet  fields  of  Oxnard  and  the  bean  fields 
of  San  Buena  Ventura,  where  millions  of  pounds  of 
these  useful  and  nutritious  legumes  are  grown.  Cali- 
fornia, in  this  region,  does  more  to  foster  the  famous 
Boston  baked  bean  habit  than  does  the  City  of  Culture 
itself.  Up  to  the  right  is  pointed  out  the  mountains 
that  nestle  over  the  world-famed  Ojai  Valley  —  pro- 
nounced O-hi  —  where  perpetual  summer  reigns  and  the 
skies  are  ever  of  cerulean  blue.  Tributary  to  the  Ojai 
are  trout  streams,  where  fishermen  love  to  angle  for 
their  favourite  fish,  and  mineral  springs,  hot  and  cold, 
of  sulphur,  iron,  magnesia  and  other  chemicals  abound, 


4         California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

which  add  to  the  fame  of  the  region.  The  Matilija 
Springs  ought  to  be  famous  for  their  name  if  for  noth- 
ing else,  for  the  tenderfoot  invariably  calls  them  "  the 
Mat-Ehjah,"  while  the  sophisticated  and  resident  are 
equally  emphatic  in  declaring  them  to  be  "  Ma-til-a- 
haw." 

Along  the  beach  fine  ocean  views  may  be  obtained, 
with  clear  outlines  on  good  days  of  Santa  Catalina,  San 
Clemente  and  the  other  Channel  Islands,  twenty  miles 
out  at  sea. 

Nearing  Santa  Barbara  —  like  San  Buena  Ventura 
an  old  Franciscan  mission  town  —  Carpenteria  is  passed, 
where  oil  derricks  resting  on  ocean  piers  are  pumping 
up  their  precious  liquid  from  under  the  surf  and  the 
bounding  billow.  Montecito,  one  of  the  flower-embow- 
ered spots  of  the  world,  is  on  the  outskirts,  and  the 
Potter  Hotel  on  the  left  informs  us  that  we  are  within 
the  Mission  City's  limits.  The  mountains  that  shelter 
this  favoured  spot  on  the  north  and  east  are  the  Santa 
Ines  range,  over  w^hich  Fremont  marched  one  awful 
•  Christmas  Day  in  a  cold  rain-storm,  "  which  swept  the 
rocky  face  of  the  precipitous  mountain  down  which 
we  descended  to  the  plain.  All  traces  of  trails  were 
washed  away  by  the  deluge  of  water,  and  pack-animals 
slid  over  the  rocks  and  fell  down  the  precipices,  blinded 
by  the  driving  rain.  In  the  descent  over  a  hundred 
horses  were  lost."  Yet  the  climate  of  the  city  itself 
is  reckoned  by  experts  to  be  about  as  equable  as  that 
of  any  spot  on  the  known  earth. 

Awakened  out  of  its  long  sleep  by  the  incoming  of 
wealthy  Americans  appreciative  of  its  soothing  climatic 
influences  and  its  altogether  charming  environment, 
Santa  Barbara  has  become  a  modern  city  of  rarely  beau- 
tiful and  luxurious  homes. 


Glimpses  of  the  Land 


Racing  north  again  the  railroad  passes  through  or 
near  lemon  orchards,  bean  and  beet  fields,  by  rugged 
seashore  to  another  mission  town,  San  Luis  Obispo. 
The  two  hills  on  the  left  are  known  as  "  the  Bishop's 
Peaks,"  and  the  old  mission  itself  rests  in  the  heart 
of  the  town  below.  From  here  the  climb  is  a  rapid  one 
over  the  Santa  Lucia  range,  with  a  descent,  after  pass- 
ing through  several  tunnels,  into  the  wide  expanse  of 
the  Salinas  Valley.  Then  in  rapid  succession  the  trav- 
eller passes  Paso  Robles  with  its  celebrated  Hot  Springs 
and  j\Iud  Baths,  where  Admiral  Evans  lost  his  rheuma- 
tism, and  the  writer  had  the  poison  eliminated  from  his 
body  which  had  been  injected  therein  by  a  vigorous 
rattlesnake  a  year  or  so  previously;  the  Franciscan  mis- 
sion of  San  Miguel;  the  new  E.  G.  Lewis  town  and 
settlement  of  Atascadero;  one  of  the  vast  Miller  and 
Lux  ranches ;  the  Gabilan  Peak  on  the  right,  where 
Fremont  entrenched  himself  when  General  Castro,  of 
the  Mexican  province  of  California,  bade  him  depart, 
and  then  entrance  is  made  through  the  great  apple- 
growing  region  of  Watsonville,  in  the  Pajaro  —  pro- 
nounced Pah-hah-ro  —  Valley,  to  the  world- famed  Santa 
Clara  Valley.  It  was  while  in  the  enjoyment  of  this 
valley  that  the  widely-travelled  Bayard  Taylor  gave 
'Voice  to  his  prophecy  in  regard  to  California.  He  wrote 
as  follows  in  his  Nezv  Pictures  from  California: 

How  shall  I  describe  a  landscape  so  unlike  anything  else  in  the  world 
—  with  a  beauty  so  new  and  dazzling  that  all  ordinary  comparisons 
are  worthless?  A  valley  ten  miles  wide,  through  the  centre  of  which  winds 
the  dry  bed  of  a  winter  stream,  whose  course  is  marked  with  groups  of  giant 
sycamores,  their  trunks  gleaming  like  silver  through  masses  of  glossy  foli- 
age: over  the  level  floor  of  this  valley  park-like  groves  of  oaks,  whose 
mingled  grace  and  majesty  can  only  be  given  by  the  pencil.  In  the  dis- 
tance, redwoods  rising  like  towers;  westward,  a  mountain-chain,  nearly 
four  thousand   feet  in  height  —  showing,   through   the  blue  haze,   dark- 


6         California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

green  forests  on  a  background  of  blazing  gold:  eastward,  another  mountain- 
chain,  full-lighted  by  the  sun:  overhead,  finally,  a  sky  whose  blue  lustre 
seemed  to  fall,  mellowed,  through  an  intervening  veil  of  luminous  vapour. 
No  words  can  describe  the  fire  and  force  of  the  colouring  —  the  daring  con- 
trasts, which  the  difference  of  half  a  tint  changed  from  discord  into  har- 
mony. Here  the  great  artist  seems  to  have  taken  a  new  palette,  and  painted 
his  creation  with  hues  unknown  elsewhere. 

Driving  along  through  these  enchanting  scenes,  I  indulged  in  a  day- 
dream. It  will  not  be  long,  I  thought  —  I  may  live  to  see  it  before  my 
prime  of  life  is  over  —  until  San  Jose  is  but  a  five-days'  journey  from  New 
York.  Cars  which  shall  be,  in  fact,  travelling-hotels,  will  speed  on  an 
unbroken  line  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific.  Then,  let  me  purchase  a 
few  acres  on  the  lowest  slope  of  these  mountains,  overlooking  the  valley, 
and  with  a  distant  gleam  of  the  bay:  let  me  build  a  cottage,  embowered  in 
acacia  and  eucalyptus,  and  the  tall  spires  of  the  Italian  cypress:  let  me 
leave  home  when  the  Christmas  holidays  are  over,  and  enjoy  the  balmy 
Januaries  and  Februaries,  the  heavenly  Marches  and  Aprils  of  my  remaining 
j'ears  here,  returning  only  when  May  shall  have  brought  beauty  to  the 
Atlantic  shore!  There  shall  my  roses  outbloom  those  of  Passtum:  there 
shall  my  nightingales  sing,  my  orange-blossoms  sweeten  the  air,  my  chil- 
dren pla}',  and  my  best  poems  be  written! 

f  I  had  another  and  a  grander  dream.  A  hundred  years  had  passed,, 
and  I  saw  the  valley,  not,  as  now,  only  partially  tamed  and  revelling  in  the 
wild  magnificence  of  Nature,  but  from  river-bed  to  mountain-summit 
humming  with  human  life.  I  saw  the  same  oaks  and  sycamores,  but 
their  shadows  fell  on  mansions  which  were  fair  as  temples,  with  their  white 
fronts  and  long  colonnades:  I  saw  gardens,  refreshed  by  gleaming  foun- 
tains —  statues  peeping  from  the  gloom  of  laurel  bowers  —  palaces,  built 
to  enshrine  the  new  Art  which  will  then  have  blossomed  here  —  culture, 
plenty,  peace,  happiness  everj'where.  I  saw  a  more  beautiful  race  in 
possession  of  this  paradise  —  a  race  in  which  the  lost  symmetry  and  grace 
of  the  Greek  was  partially  restored  —  the  rough,  harsh  features  of  the 
original  type  gone  —  milder  manners,  better-regulated  impulses,  and  a 
keener  appreciation  of  all  the  arts  which  enrich  and  embellish  life.  Was 
it  only  a  dream? 

I  have  lived  to  see  a  part  of  Bayard  Taylor's  dream 
come  trtie.  The  whole  valley  now  is  peopled.  Every 
acre  is  cultivated,  even  far  up  the  hillsides.  Magnificent 
homes  of  wealthy,  cultured  and  happy  people  are  in  evi- 
dence everywhere.  Express  trains  propelled  by  steam 
and  electricity,  with  powerful  automobiles  dashing  rap- 


/-'^-'.■^-   nyji^.  '-^i    iiA  /'-■vvVa-Jl- 


8         California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

"  And  the  love  my  heart  would  speak, 
I  will  fold  in  the  lily's  rim. 
That  th'  lips  of  the  blossom,  more  pure  and  meek, 
May  ofler  it  up  to  Him. 

"  Then  sing  in  the  hedgerow  green,  O  thrush, 
O  skylark,  sing  in  the  blue; 
Sing  loud,  sing  clear,  that  the  King  may  hear, 
And  my  soul  shall  sing  with  you!  "  ^ 

But  such  "  glimpses  "  as  we  have  taken  of  the  Santa 
Clara  Valley  occupy  too  much  of  our  time.  We  must 
hurry  up  the  peninsula  where  Portola  and  Crespi  walked 
with  weary  feet  and  discouraged  hearts  after  their  fail- 
ure to  find  the  Bay  of  Monterey,  and  stumbled  upon  the 
discovery  of  the  far  greater  bay,  that  of  San  Francisco. 
To  the  right  is  Palo  Alto,  on  the  left  of  wdiich  is  the 
Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  University,  the  most  extensive 
privately  endowed  institution  for  the  education  of  youth 
yet  given  to  civilizati(~»n.  On,  on,  the  train  conveys 
us  through  the  tunnels  into  the  heart  of  San  Francisco 
itself. 

Here,  only  a  few  glances  at  the  Palace,  St.  Francis 
and  Fairmont  Hotels,  the  Cliff  House,  the  ferry-boats 
shuttling  to  and  fro  over  the^Bay,  the  Presidio,  the  Ex- 
position Grounds,  and  the  Golden  Gate  and  we  are  off 
—  still  on  the  line  of  the  Thousand  Wonders  —  to  the 
north.  Crossing  on  one  of  the  ferries  to  the  Oakland 
Mole  we  see  how  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  has  yielded 
to  the  demands  oi  trans-oceanic  commerce,  local  home- 
making  and  interior  business.  Towns,  cities,  settlements 
have  sprung  up  in  e\ei-y  direction.  The  harbour  is  fully 
fortified  by  Uncle  Sam  near  one  of  the  Islands,  railways 
from   the   north,    soulh.    and    east    here   transship   their 

1  Used  by  kind  permission  of  Miss  Coolbrith  from  her  Songs  of  the  Golden 
Gate,  Houghton,  MifHin  &  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 


Glimpses  of  the  Land 


idly  over  modern  roads,  take  business  men  who  reside 
here  to  San  Francisco  to  their  offices  each  morning  and 
back  again  in  the  afternoon. 

Each  year  for  several  years  the  world  has  been  invited 
to  a  festival  held  at  Saratoga  in  the  foothills,  commem- 
orative of  the  glory  of  the  Blossom  Time.  Upwards 
of  two  million  prune  and  other  fruit  trees  are  in  bloom 
at  the  same  time;  myriads  of  bees  hum  their  happiness, 
and  butterflies  and  humming-birds  radiate  their  joy  as 
they  flit  and  fly,  rise  and  fall,  dart  and  wing  back  and 
forth  in  a  perfect  revelry  of  delight  in  this  paradise  of 
blossom.  Yielding  to  the  same  natural  impulse  for  ex- 
pression as  given  voice  by  Ina  Coolbrith,  one  of  Cali-  i 
fomia's  sweetest  poets,  the  Rev.  E.  S.  Williams  —  com- 
monly known  as  Sunshine  Williams  —  inaugurated  this  i 
Blossom  Festival.  It  would  seem  an  appropriate  thing, 
if,  at  each  succeeding  festival,  they  would  sing  this  song 
of  Miss  Coolbrith's : 


"  It's  O  my  heart,  my  heart, 

To  be  out  in  the  son  and  sing  — 

To  sing  and  shout  in  the  fields  about, 

In  the  balm  and  the  blossoming! 

"  Sing  loud,  O  bird  in  the  tree; 
O  bird,  sing  loud  in  the  sky, 
And  honey-bees,  blacken  the  clover   -aIs  — 
There  is  none  of  you  glad  as  I. 

"  The  leaves  laugh  low  in  the  wind, 
Laugh  low,  with  the  wind  at  play; 
And  the  odorous  call  of  the  flowers  all 
Entices  my  soul  away! 

"  For  O  but  the  world  is  fair,  is  f  lir  — 
And  O  but  the  world  is  sweet! 
I  will  out  in  the  gold  of  the  blossoming  mould, 
And  sit  at  the  Master's  feec- 


\ 


A 


THE    TR.AIXIXG    SHIP,    "  INDEPENDENCE,"    MARE    ISLAND. 


Glimpses  of  the  Land  9 

freight;  toiling  thousands  cross  to  their  hillside  homes 
after  their  day's  work  in  the  city;  scores  of  houseboats 
line  the  tiny  bays;  lively  yachts  spread  their  sails  in  the 
morning  and  afternoon  sun  and  dance  on  the  crests  of 
the  choppy  waves,  and  the  visitors  to  the  summit  of  Mt. 
Tamalpais,  up  the  "  crookedest  railway "  (with  the 
straightest  management)  in  the  world,  look  down  upon 
it  all.  while  at  the  same  time  they  can  see  out  on  the 
Pacific  the  steamships  coming  across  from  China,  Japan, 
and  Honolulu  and  aiming  directly  for  the  Golden  Gate 
near  by. 

On  our  right  as  we  pass  are  Oakland,  soon  to  be 
famous  as  a  seaport,  and  Berkeley,  the  seat  of  the  State 
University.  Racing  past  powder-making  plants,  oil 
refineries,  and  various  other  industrial  locations,  follow- 
ing the  windings  of  the  inner  bay.  we  come  to  the  Straits 
of  Carquinez.  Here  above  us  cross  the  high-voltage 
electric  wires  of  the  San  Francisco  Electric  Companies, 
which  bring  the  power  for  turning  every  car-wheel, 
every  printing-press,  every  machine  of  every  description, 
and  supplying  the  light  for  every  electric  bulb  or  arc 
in  the  city,  from  the  hydro-electric  power  plants  in  the 
High  Sierras  two  hundred  miles  or  more  away. 

Our  whole  train,  engine,  baggage  cars,  Pullmans  and 
observation-car  are  taken  on  the  ferry-boat  Solauo,  and 
without  consciousness  of  the  fact  on  the  part  of  many 
of  our  fellow-passengers,  we  are  transferred  to  the  other 
side.  In  a  few  minutes  we  are  dashing  ahead  over  fer- 
tile, and  in  some  places  marshy  land  to  Sacramento,  the 
capital  of  the  State.  This  was  the  original  site  of  Sut- 
ter's Fort,  built  by  that  soldier  of  fortune  who  came  to 
California  in  1839.  Here  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  a 
land  grant  of  eleven  leagues  in  extent,  built  his  fort, 
and   then,    gaining   control   over   Mexicans  and    Indians 


10       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

alike,  began  to  live  in  medieval  style  almost  as  a  feudal 
lord.  It  was  in  constructing  a  race  for  a  lumber-mill 
that  he  was  building  for  Sutter  that  Marshall  discovered 
the  gold  which  led  to  the  great  rush  to  California  in 
1848-49.  That  rush,  which,  properly  managed,  should 
have  made  Sutter  rich,  became  his  ruin.  His  vast  herds 
of  stock  and  horses  were  stolen,  and  his  grain  and  pas- 
ture used  by  the  newcomers  as  freely  as  they  expected 
to  find  the  gold.  His  own  army  of  men  joined  the  gold 
hunters  and  he  was  left  alone.  Rapidly  the  city  of 
Sacramento  grew  up  on  the  banks  of  the  river  from 
which  it  gained  its  name,  and  in  an  incredibly  short 
space  of  time  poor  Sutter  was  stranded,  high  and  dry. 
His  fort  is  now  one  of  the  historic  show-places  of  the 
city. 

Turning  north  at  Davis,  we  follow  the  main  course 
of  the  Sacramento  Valley,  its  fertile  fields  at  last  being 
open  for  full  development.  For  over  half  a  century  the 
major  portion  of  this  rich  country,  as  large  as  Massachu- 
setts, Maryland,  Connecticut  and  Delaware  combined, 
was  held  by  half  a  dozen  men  who  refused  to  divide 
their  holdings,  —  and  the  State  had  not  yet  learned  how 
to  compel  them  to  do  so,  —  preferring  to  keep  them 
as  vast  cattle  ranches.  Now,  however,  this  condition 
is  ended.  A  new  epoch  of  development  has  begun. 
Great  irrigation  plans  are  under  way  or  in  active  opera- 
tion, and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  are  already 
under  the  plough  of  the  settler.  Green  fields  of  alfalfa 
and  grain  are  springing  up,  immense  areas  of  orchard 
are  planted  out  and  already  bearing  rich  harvest,  a 
thousand  homes  dot  the  landscape,  —  the  advance-guard 
of  ten  thousand,  and  more,  which  will  speedily  arise. 
The  foothills  are  being  converted  into  lemon  and  orange 
orchards,  for  a  thermal  belt  exists  here,  with  practically 


Glimpses  of  the  Land  ll 

no  frost,  so  that  orange  crops  are  surer,  a  month  or  two 
earHer  in  the  market,  than  in  the  celebrated  orange- 
growing  sections  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  State. 

Marysville  now  comes  into  sight.  It  is  one  of  the 
oldest  towns  started  in  mining  days,  founded  because 
it  was  at  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Feather  River,  - 
one  of  the  richest  of  the  gold-bearing  streams  up 
which,  via  the  Sacramento,  boats  could  ply  from  San 
Francisco.  It  was  the  natural  city  resort  of  the  miners 
of  the  Yuba,  Feather  and  Sacramento  Rivers  region,  and  \ 
they  flocked  hither  from  every  direction  for  their  usual 
weekly  hilarity.  Here  the  Yuba  unites  with  the  Feather, 
and  just  across  the  latter  river  is  Yuba  City,  the  county 
seat  of  Sutter  County,  Marysville  being  the  county  seat 
of  Yuba  County.  The  two  really  form  one  city  with 
a  combined  population  of  about  15,000.  Seven  miles 
of  levees  were  constructed  in  1875,  at  a  cost  of  a  million 
dollars,  to  protect  the  growing  cities  from  the  river's 
flood  waters,  and  they  have  never  had  a  break.  To-day 
the  centre  of  an  active  agricultural  and  horticultural 
region,  the  mines  have  sunk  into  secondary  importance 
and  the  cargoes  now  carried  by  the  boats  to  and  from 
San  Francisco  and  Sacramento  are  as  largely  outgoing 
as  they  used  to  be  ingoing.  Few  people  realize,  even 
in  California,  that  the  Sacramento  River  with  its  tribu- 
taries ranks  fifth  among  the  rivers  of  the  United  States 
in  the  amount  and  value  of  the  traffic  it  carries. 

Sacramento  Valley  is  so  wide,  varying  from  seven  to 
sixty  miles,  with  the  Coast  Range  on  the  west,  and  the 
Sierras  on  the  east,  that  it  has  a  railway  for  each  side, 
together  with  several  cross  branches.  Prosperous  towns, 
such  as  Wheatland,  Oroville,  Chico,  Woodland,  Yolo, 
Arbuckle,  \\'illiams,  Colusa,  Maxwell,  Willows,  Orland 
and  Corning,  line  these  railways,  each  of  which  should 


12       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

have  a  page  in  this  hook..  And  I  have  not  named  them 
all. 

Red  Blnff  is  further  north,  and  receives  its  name 
from  the  colour  of  its  earthen  banks  on  the  Sacramento. 
Live  stock,  agriculture  and  mining  are  all  profitable  in 
Tehama  County  and  in  Shasta,  which  is  the  next  county 
we  enter  to  the  north.  We  are  still  keeping  in  touch 
with  the  Sacramento  River,  and  now,  as  we  get  higher, 
we  enter  the  Sacramento  Canyon.  The  tiat  country  has 
disappeared.  Tree-clad  or  rocky  slopes  take  its  place 
on  either  side.  This  is  the  summer  playground  for 
a  large  portion  of  tlie  population  of  the  central  part 
of  the  State.  The  Mt.  Shasta  region  is  beginning  to 
come  into  its  own.  Fuji  San  in  Japan  is  not  more  glori- 
ous than  this  stupendously  majestic  monarch  that  guards 
the  nortlieni  gateway  of  California.  It  rises  supreme 
over  everything,  over  14,000  feet  into  the  upper  heavens, 
its  lower  slopes  forest-clad,  its  canyons  a  deep,  rich  pur- 
ple, and  its  upper  half  one  mass  of  purest  white. 

Even  yet  we  have  not  reached  the  northern  confines 
of  the  State.  For  half  a  day  the  train  Avinds  around, 
seldom  losing  sight  of  Mt.  Shasta,  gaining  new  and 
superb  views  at  every  turn.  Castle  Crags,  Shasta 
Springs,  Dunsmuir  are  passed,  and  then  Weed,  in  the 
heart  of  the  Shasta  lumbering  region,  and  from  which 
the  railway  sends  out  a  branch  to  Klamath  Lake.  Then, 
entering  the  canyons  of  the  Siskiyou  range,  there  is 
more  rugged  and  picturesque  country  of  an  elevated 
character  before  Ashland,  Oregon,  is  attained.  Thus 
we  have  made  one  survey  extending  from  Yuma  on  the 
southeast  to  the  Oregon  boundary  on  the  north.  A  vast 
territory,  certainly,  and  one  which  taxes  the  imagination 
at  even  a  cursory  glance. 

Li  spite  of  all  we  have  travelled  and  seen  we  have 


'  •".''^ •■■■*.'     - 


THE    SACRAMENTO    RIVER,    RED    BLUFF. 


Glimpses  of  the  Land  13 

scarcely  begun  to  glimpse  California.  There  is  its  coast 
extending  in  a  mathematically  straight  line  over  eight 
hundred  miles,  and,  if  its  winding  bays  are  followed, 
stretching  out  to  a  good  two  thousand  miles.  Beyond, 
to  the  west,  twenty  or  more  miles  out  at  sea,  are  the 
Channel  Islands,  twenty  in  number,  sufficient  to  make 
a  commonwealth  of  their  own  in  a  less  favoured  country. 
We  have  scarcely  glanced  at  its  Coast  Range,  extending 
practically  from  the  extreme  north  to  the  Mexican  line 
and  beyond,  and  the  majestic  Sierra  Nevada  —  the  back- 
bone of  the  State  —  irregularly  paralleling  the  Coast 
Range,  how  they  stand : 

'  Serene  and  satisfied !    Suprer^  !    As  lone 
As  God,  they  loom  like  God's  archangels  churl'd 
They  look  as  cold  as  kings  upon  a  throne; 

A  line  of  battle-tents  in  everlasting  snow. 

We  have  neither  dived  into  its  Yosemites  and  Hetch- 
Hetchys,  nor  ridden  on  its  Lake  Tahoes  and  Donners, 
hundreds  of  which,  of  smaller  size,  dot  the  gray  Sierras 
with  sapphire  and  emerald.  Its  Mohave  and  Colorado 
Deserts,  and  its  Death  Valley  we  have  not  explored, 
nor  its  vast  redv/ood  forests  of  Mendocino  and  Hum- 
boldt Counties,  where  are  still  enough  standing  timbers 
to  rebuild  every  house  in  the  State  of  their  sweet-smelling 
and  finely  grained  wood. 

It  might  be  well  to  take  an  imaginary  aeroplane  or 
dirigible  balloon  trip  to  complete  our  "  glimpse,"  and 
see  how  naturally  the  State  separates  itself  into  nine 
large  divisions.  These  are  not  as  regular  as  the  sections 
of  an  orange,  but  just  as  simple  and  natural. 

Ascending  over  the  San  Francisco  region  we  see  that 
the    Bay    strikes    inward  —  eastward  —  as    far    as    the 


14       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

junctiodi  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  Rivers,  the 
former  flowing  in  from  the  north,  the  latter  from  the 
south.  Now  draw  an  imaginary  Hne  over  the  Sierras 
eastward.  It  will  cross  Calaveras  and  Alpine  Counties 
to  the  Nevada  line.  This  separates  the  northern  and 
central  parts  of  the  State. 

A  similar  imaginary  line  drawn  from  midway  be- 
tween the  34th  and  35th  parallels,  just  above  Santa 
Barbara,  separates  the  central  and  southern  parts  of 
the  State. 

The  Coast  Range  and  the  Sierra  Nevadas  give  the 
two  longitudinal  lines,  which  separate  the  three  divisions 
lengthwise,  hence  we  have  nine  large  and  distinct  sec- 
tions. Necessarily  they  overlap  somewhat,  and  tlie  lines 
are  rudely  drawn.  The  Sacramento  Valley  forms  the 
great  interior  or  valley  section  of  the  northern  division, 
and  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  of  the  central  division. 
There  is  no  great  central  valley  in  Southern  California 
to  correspond  with  these,  but  beloAv  Ventura  to  the  east 
lies  the  Santa  Clara  Valley,  then  further  south  the  San 
Fernando  and  San  Gabriel  Valleys,  over  the  Tehachipi 
range,  the  Mohave  Desert  of  which  Antelope,  Kramer 
and  the  Mohave  Valleys  fonu  a  part.  Then  over  the 
San  Gorgonio  pass  on  the  south,  going  to  the  southeast, 
lie  the  Coachella  and  Imperial  Valleys,  both  in  the  heart 
of  the  great  Colorado  Desert. 

All  throughout  the  central  and  northern  divisions  of 
the  State  there  are  smaller  ranges  of  mountains  or  off- 
shoots of  the  Coast  and  Sierra  Nevada  chains.  Between 
these  lie  innumerable  smaller  valleys,  each  with  its  own 
distinguishing  characteristics.  On  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Sierras,  also,  this  same  condition  exists. 

On  the  coast  one  should  not  fail  to  note  that  at  the 
extreme  south  San  Diego  possesses  a  fine  land-locked 


Glimpses  of  the  Land  15 

harbour;  further  north  Los  Angeles  is  becoming  pos- 
sessed of  a  made  harbour  upon  which  the  federal  gov- 
ernment has  spent  many  millions.  Monterey  possesses 
quite  a  bay  in  crescent  shape,  with  Pacific  Grove  at  the 
southern  point  and  Santa  Cruz  at  the  northern.  Then, 
practically  midway  of  the  State  is  the  magnificent  har- 
bour of  San  Francisco,  with  an  area  of  four  hundred 
and  eighty  square  miles.  Further  north  there  is  one 
bay  only  of  present  commercial  importance,  that  of 
Humboldt.  This  is  fourteen  miles  long  and  from  half 
a  mile  to  four  miles  in  width. 

^Vhile  the  Coast  Range  offers  no  ever-virgin  snow- 
clad  peaks  for  contemplation,  there  are  several  interest- 
ing summits  that  attract  attention,  such,  for  instance, 
as  Mt.  Hamilton,  on  M^iich  the  Lick  Observatory  is 
located,  Mt.  Diablo,  the  meridian  point  for  the  central 
part  of  the  State,  Mt.  Tamalpais,  up  which  runs  the 
crooked  railway,  and  Mt.  St.  Helena,  on  the  slopes  of 
which  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  spent  his  honeymoon  and 
wrote  his  Silverado  Squatters. 

In  the  Sierra  Nevadas,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are 
over  a  hundred  peaks  registering  over  ten  thousand  feet 
high,  while  Mt.  Shasta  on  the  north,  and  Mt.  Whitney 
on  the  south  reach  respectively  14,511  and  nearly  15,000 
feet. 

Indeed  the  highest  point  in  the  United  States  is  ]Mt. 
Whitney,  and  not  far  away  are  Death  Valley  and  the 
Salton  Basin,  the  latter  264  feet  below  the  level  of  the 
■sea. 

One  more  fact  should  distinctly  be  understood  about 
California  before  seeking  to  know  more  of  it  in  detail. 
It  is  that  there  are  a  thousand  and  one  places  of  fasci- 
nation, romance  and  beauty  that,  as  yet,  are  unknown 
except  to  a  limited  few.     The  newcomer  to  the  State, 


16       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  season's  tourist  or  the  winter  resident  does  not  even 
dream  of  tlieir  existence.  In  its  wide  and  varied  ex- 
panse these  places  are  hidden,  lost,  inaccessible.  But 
now,  through  the  good  roads  movement,  and  by  the 
expansion  of  railway  systems,  many  of  these  hidden 
recesses  are  becoming  accessible.  It  is  to  be  hoped  there 
will  always  be  some  solitudes  of  mountain,  forest,  can- 
yon, desert,  seashore  and  island  where  only  the  few  may 
penetrate.  But  at  the  same  time  it  is  a  good  thing  that 
new  places  are  being  found  which  men  and  women  of 
the  cities  can  reach  to  the  enlargement  of  their  hitherto 
narrow,  cribb'd,  cabin'd,  and  confin'd  existence. 

Of  such  places  the  lava  beds  of  Modoc  County  may 
be  cited  as  an  example.  These  occupy  what  seem  to 
have  been  the  bed  of  the  western  part  of  Rhett  Lake. 
Ten  miles  long  and  six  miles  wide,  it  is  a  region  where 
chaos  and  confusion  reign  supreme.  There  are  few 
spots  in  America  like  it.  We  hear  of  the  Bad  Lands  of 
Dakota  and  Montana,  and  there  are  the  marvellously 
extensive  Lava  Fields,  on  the  Santa  Fe  railway,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Grants,  New  Mexico,  and  Flagstaff, 
Arizona,  but  here  these  lava  fields  are  rude,  rugged, 
jagged  masses  of  rock,  square  and  angular,  of  every 
conceivable  size,  and  tossed  hither  and  yonder  in  rudest 
confusion.  In  between  them  are  irregular  spaces  strewn 
with  cinders  and  disintegrated  lava.  Over  all  are  tur- 
rets, tinted  with  red  and  brown  masses  of  moss  and 
lichen.  Near  by  clear,  blue  Rhett  Lake  and  towering 
Mount  Shasta  give  grace  and  dignity  to  the  landscape, 
but  when  one  attempts  to  negotiate  the  lava  fields  he 
had  better  take  a  guide  along.  For  here  and  there  as 
he  walks  he  may  hear  the  rumble  of  subterranean  pas- 
sages. —  natural  caverns  made  by  the  confined  gases 
holding  up  the  plastic  lava  while  it  was  cooling. 


Glimpses  of  the  Land  17 

I  have  explored  many  of  the  long  tunnel-connected 
caverns.  In  places  one  must  crawl  on  hands  and  knees ; 
again  he  comes  into  an  expansive  chamber  twenty,  forty 
or  more  feet  high.  Some  of  the  walls  are  rudely  sculp- 
tured by  Nature's  forces  into  the  wildest,  most  fantastic, 
bizarre  forms,  —  forms  and  shapes  full  of  suggestion  to 
the  imaginative  mind  of  artistic  creations  at  the  hands 
of  genius,  unfamiliar  yet  dominating.  Sometimes  these 
passages  suddenly  terminate  wnth  a  blank  wall;  again 
they  lead  the  tremulous  visitor  to  the  edge  of  a  black 
abyss,  into  which  a  stone  cast,  "  to  see  haw  deep  it  is," 
echoes  and  reechoes  on  its  descent  wdthout  giving  any 
evidence  of  its  reaching  bottom.  In  some  of  these 
abysses  great  caves  have  been  found,  where,  in  the  heat 
of  the  hottest  summer,  snow  and  ice  may  be  found  in 
large  quantities. 

Masses  of  obsidian,  also,  are  found,  in  rude  round, 
oval  and  other  shapes,  varying  in  size  from  a  pebble 
to  a  foot-ball,  and  in  one  place  I  found  a  massive  pillar 
of  this  material  —  volcanic  glass  —  vsath  a  variety  of 
colour  shades  as  it  glistened  in  the  sun. 

Now  and  again  one  passes  an  ordinary-looking  mud- 
hole,  but  experience  has  taught  that  these  are  bottom- 
leSiS  pits  which  it  is  well  to  avoid.  In  many  places  the 
observant  eye  will  note  signs  of  former  beach  or  shore 
lines,  and  he  wonders  w'hen  the  lakes  or  seas  that  these 
indicate  receded,  or  when  the  uplift  occurred  which 
raised  the  land  away  from  these  early  and  now,  perhaps, 
non-existent  bodies  of  w^ater. 

The  present-day  Modoc  Indians  tell  us  that  this  place 
was  the  birthplace  of  the  human  race  (the  Modocs' 
ancestors,  of  course),  and  on  the  nose  of  lava  rocks 
thrust  into  Lake  Rhett,  excavations  w^ere  made  in  191 1- 
1912,  and  it  was  asserted  that  bones  of  a  giant  race, 


18       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

men  eight  feet  tall,  were  found  surrounded  by  gravel 
and  cinders,  together  with  monster  pipes,  made  of  clay, 
and  other  relics. 

This  region  is  but  one  of  many  scores  of  practically 
unknown  but  interesting  spots. 

In  continuing  our  cursory  survey  of  the  State  an- 
other important  thought  should  not  be  overlooked. 
One  is  constantly  finding  himself  asking  the  question,  as 
he  looks  over  California's  sunlit  landscapes,  sees  these 
newly  planted  fields,  wa-tches  these  rapidly  growing 
towns :  What  of  the  future  ?  Here  is  a  land  in  the 
making.  The  builders  are  nozv  at  work.  What  kind 
of  foundations  are  they  laying?  What  structures  actu- 
ally building?  Europe  is  already  built.  We  see  Lon- 
don and  wonder  —  but  it  is  a  wonder  at  its  historic 
growth.  Paris  arouses  the  same  feelings,  and  so  with 
Berlin,  St.  Petersburg  and  Constantinople.  Their  his- 
tory is  their  greatest  romance.  But  here  are  cities  that 
yesterday  were  not ;  towns  that  have  sprung  up  in  a 
day.     Their  romance  is  but  beginning. 

Thirty   years   ago   Las   Angeles   was   a   slow,    sleepy 
Mexican  town  of  ten  thousand  people  —  to-day  it  boasts 
half  a  million.      San  Diego  had,   say,   three  thousand; 
r'now  it  has  over  a  hundred  thousand.     Oakland  was  a 
'  half-awake  town  in  1905.   The  San  Francisco  earthquake 
and  fire  came,  sending  thousands  of  its  homeless  across 
i  the  Bay.     As  if  it  had  received  a  transfusion  of  blood 
i  into  its  veins  Oakland  leaped  into  a  newness  of  life  that 
I  has  been  startling.     The  city  in  less  than  five  years  was 
I  transformed.     Everj'thing  about  it  was  vivified,  quick- 
ened,   changed.      New   street-cars,   new   buildings,   new 
City  Hall,  new  railway  station,  new  hotels,  new  thea- 
tres, new  residence  sections,  and  now  they  have  seized 
[  the  great  roaring  waves  of  the  Bay  by  the  throat,  com- 


Glimpses  of  the  Land  19 

manded  them  "  back,"  as  Canute  the  Great  never  could 
have  done,  have  stolen  from  their  domain  thousands  of 
acres,  and  are  preparing  to  make  of  these  acres  a  water- 
front, a  harbour,  that  shall  make  of  Oakland  a  seaport 
second  only  to  San  Francisco. 

Such,  then,  is  California  —  not  onlv  the  golden,  but 
the  silvery,  not  only  the  land  of  sunshine  and  flowers 
but  of  deep  snows  and  arctic  verdure,  not  only  of  fer- 
tile valleys  but  of  alkali  flats,  dry  deserts  and  solemn 
mountain  peaks ;  not  only  of  semi-tropical  sea  but  of 
Alpine  heights  —  a  land  of  mighty  area,  of  remarkable 
contrasts,  of  irreconcilable  variety,  of  unequalled  diver- 
sity, where  every  kind  of  scenery  and  every  variety  of 
climate  known  elsewhere  upon  the  face  of  the  earth 
may  be  found  —  in  a  word,  an  individual  cosmos,  a 
world  withih  itself. 


CHAPTER    II 
California's  romance  and  beauty 

In  deciding  upon  those  portions  of  California  that 
should  be  included  in  a  general  description  of  the  State 
the  necessary  limitations  of  space  demanded  careful 
determination  as  to  the  style  and  kind  of  material  that 
should  be  admitted.  It  was  speedily  settled  that  only 
the  romantic  and  beautiful  should  find  place.  This 
decision  still  left  me  to  choose  whether  I  should  write 
of  the  romantic  and  of  the  beautiful,  as  separate  and 
distinct  qualifications,  or  only  of  those  natural  objects 
that  were  hotli  romantic  and  beautiful. 

This  distinction  naturally  led  to  a  consideration  of 
these  two  prime  elements,  romance  and  beauty.  What 
constitutes  the  one  and  the  other?  Without  entering 
into  any  dictionary  definitions,  a  few  thoughts  arose 
which  I  desire  to  share. 

Undoubtedly  there  is  such  a  thing  as  romance  with- 
out beauty,  but  I  much  doubt  whether  there  is  ever 
beauty  without  romance.  Beauty  in  and  by  itself  par- 
takes of  the  essential  character  of  romance  —  even  if 
it  seems  to  be  unromantic,  in  that  very  fact  of  non- 
romance  it  is  made  romantic  —  the  exquisite,  delicate, 
beautiful  flower  blushing  unseen  in  desert  wastes. 

But  even  beauty  is  many-sided,  and  as  hard  to  define 
as  life  itself.  What  is  beauty?  He  who  seeks  to  answer 
is  doomed  to  disappointment.  Your  definition  is  only 
the  expression  of  what  pleases,  satisfies  yon,  what  meets 

20 


California's  Romance  and  Beauty        21 

your  conception  of  the  aesthetic,  what  possesses  those 
objective  elements  that  chami,  attract,  thrill  you.  Stand- 
ards differ.  The  beauty  of  one  race  is  the  hideous  of 
another;  the  standard  of  excellence  of  one  age  is  con- 
demned as  a  deformity  and  abnormality  of  another; 
the  Grecian  Venus  is  regarded  as  "  big-waisted  and 
beefy "  by  the  tight-corseted,  hour-g"lass-shaped,  fash- 
ionable woman  of  the  French  salon  or  American  draw- 
ing-room of  a  generation  ago. 

And  so  with  beauty  as  expressed  in  Nature.     "  Sce- 
nery!!" said  a  woman  from  Nebraska,  as  expressed  in   / 
Herbert  Bashford's  amusing  poem: 

They  brag  about  their  scenery!     CalMorny!    Humph!     O  dear! 
Scenery!    Well,  just  speaking  plainlj^,  I  don't  see  no  scenery  here, 
Nothin'  but  th'  mount'in  ranges  rarin'  up  so  tarnal  high 
Thet  a  buddy  kint  look  nowheres  'cept  the  middle  o'  th'  sky. 
Mount'ins,  everlastin'  mount'ins,  hills  'n'  woods  'n'  rocks  'n'  snow, 
Where  th'  scenery  is  they're  braggin'  on  I'm  th'  one  as  wants  t'  know. 
Let  'em  stand  in  Lincoln  County  just  aback  our  cowyard  fence. 
An'  if  they  don't  say  there's  scenery  they  hain't  got  a  mite  o'  sense; 
Why  yuh  kin  look  fur  miles  around  yuh  an'  see  nothin'  but  th'  fiat 
Level  prairie  in  th'  sunshine  kivered  in  its  grassy  mat. 
That  is  scenery  —  yuh  kin  look  there  jest  as  fur  as  yuh  kin  see 
With  no  hills  a  interposin'  er  no  rocks,  er  airy  tree. 
Oh,  I've  told  my  husband,  Ephrum,  that  I'd  gallavant  no  more 
When  ag'in  I'd  sot  my  foot  on  old  Newbrasky's  fertile  shore. 

Cicely's  husband  in  Bret  Harte's  poem  looked  out  over  g 
the  desert.     He  saw  nought  but 

Alkali,  rock,  and  sage; 
Sage-brush,  rock,  and  alkali;   ain't  it  a  pretty  page! 
Sun  in  the  east  at  mornin',  sun  in  the  west  at  night. 
And  the  shadow  of  this  yer  station  the  on'y  thing  moves  in  sight. 

His  conception  of  the  desert's  beauty  is  expressed  in 
his  sarcasm 

Ain't  it  a  pretty  page! 


22       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


Yet  I  have  stood  side  by  side  with  poets,  world-wide 
travellers,  and  experts  in  scenery,  who,  when  that  same 
sage-brush,  sand  and  alkali  was  flooded  with  morning" 
sunlight  in  the  purple  shades,  or  bathed  in  the  roise-mist 
and  delicate  tinted  glories  of  a  sunset,  have  stood  breath- 
less, as  did  the  disciples  on  the  Mount  of  Transfigura- 
tion. 

In  one  of  my  scrap-books  of  many  years'  gatherings, 
I  have  a  placard  pulled  down  some  tliirty  years  ago 
from  a  tree  in  the  Yosemite  Valley,  which  bears  the 
following  inscription : 

WE    ARE   A    BAND    OF 

DISAPPOINTED 

PLEASURE    SEEKERS 

with  over  a  dozen  names  signed  thereto. 

In  this  chasm  of  sublime  majesty,  with  individual- 
istic walls  of  towering  grandeur,  over  which  dash  water- 
falls of  supernal  beauty  into  a  park  radiant  with  the 
glory  of  a  thousand  varieties  of  trees  and  shrubs,  and 
the  floor  of  which  blossoms  to  a  million  exquisite,  dainty 
and  eye-satisfying  "  thoughts  of  God,"  these  people  had 
the  imbecile  temerity  to  sign  themselves  fools  who  "  hav- 
ing eyes  saw  not  "  the  glory  of  the  Lord  revealed  in 
Nature,  to  which  the  thousands  of  the  earth's  hungry 
epicures  in  beauty  have  flocked  for  decades. 

The  eyes  of  the  mind  and  soul  must  be  attuned,  or 
certain  essential  elements  of  beauty  which  are  too  subtle 
for  the  physical  eye  will  be  overlooked.  Wordsworth's 
Peter  Bell  saw  the  primrose,  and  it  was  nothing  more 
than  a  primrose  to  him,  but  to  the  poet  it  spoke  volumes 
of  the  hidden,  secret  and  spiritual  forces  of  the  universe, 
and  the  world's  greatest  artists  have  come  to  worship. 


California's  Romance  and  Beauty        23 

Did  you  ever  hear  a  soulful  reader  render  poems  with 
which  you  deemed  yourself  perfectly  familiar?  Shel- 
ley's Ode  to  a  Skylark  has  become  classic,  because  the 
critics  have  dinned  it  into  the  ears  of  the  students  of 
English  poetry  for  many  years  that  it  is  so.  Yet  one  of 
the  sweetest  poets  of  California  read  a  prose-poem  on  the 
Skylark  by  another  California  poet  and  failed  to  realize 
there  was  anything  special  in  it  until  a  friend  read  it 
aloud  and  dared  to  affirm  that  the  prose  poem  fully 
equalled,  if  not  surpassed,  the  poetic  fantasy  of  Shelley 
that  a  world's  judgment  placed  high  upon  the  pinnacle 
of  classic  eloquence. 

A  hundred  thousand  people  have  heard  Coluuihus 
—  Joaquin  Miller's  great  poem  —  read,  and  tears  have 
sprung  to  their  eyes,  the  praises  that  voluntarily  testi- 
fied to  the  sublimity  and  heroic  grandeur  of  the  verses, 
yet  the  major  portion  of  those  hearers  have  gone  to 
the  reader  and  declared  that  they  thought  they  knew 
all  there  was  in  that  poem,  as  they  had  been  reading 
or  declaiming  it  for  years. 

A  horde  of  tourists  and  sight-seers  will  gaze  on  a 
landscape  week  after  week,  month  after  month,  year 
after  year,  and  see  "  nothing  much  "  in  it.  but  a  great 
artist  comes  along  with  a  penetrating  eye  for  the  inner- 
ness  of  the  divine  in  common  things  and  paints  a  pic- 
ture that  thrills  the  world. 

A  million  people  had  seen  the  French  peasant,  with 
horny  hands,  dull  and  stolid  face,  bedaubed  clothes, 
heavy,  mud-laden  wooden  sabots,  rise  and  stand  with 
folded  hands  at  the  ringing  of  the  Angelus,  but  it  took 
a  Jean  Franqois  Millet  to  see  the  inherent  sublimity, 
glory,  and  tender,  pathetic  beauty  of  the  picture,  arul 
he  thrilled  the  heart  of  the  world  —  the  irreligious, 
money-getting,   sordid,   sensual,   as   well   as   the   tender. 


24       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

religious,  aspirational  —  with  his  simple  and  truthful 
presentment  of  what  his  spiritual  eyes  discerned. 

Beauty  is  a  comparative  and  personal  thing.  I  see 
no  beauty  in  the  powdered  and  rouged,  specially  mani- 
cured, high-heeled,  tight-skirted,  fashionable  female  of 
the  species.  All  my  natural  instincts  rebel  against  her 
unnaturalness ;  but  a  bunch  of  flowers,  a  child  at  its 
mother's  breast,  a  labourer's  arm  around  his  rosy-faced 
wife,  a  cluster  of  fleecy  clouds  in  the  sky,  a  wild  horse 
in  a  field,  a  group  of  children  at  play,  a  frolicking  calf, 
a  pine-tree  covered  with  sun-lit  dewdrops,  the  blue  sky 
glimpsed  through  a  pepper-tree  with  lacy  leaves  and 
red  berries,  an  orange-grove  in  blossom,  a  sunset  on 
Mt.  San  Antonio  or  Mt.  Shasta,  or  a  sunrise  on  the 
desert,  —  these  and  a  thousand  and  one  varied  and  sim- 
ple things,  pure,  sweet,  natural,  bring  tears  to  my  eyes 
because  of  their  beauty. 

Another  thing  must  be  considered.  Some  minds  re- 
quire time  to  see  the  beauty  of  unfamiliar  objects. 
Others  grasp  it  immediately.  I  have  heard  thoughtful 
and  appreciative  people  speak  most  disparagingly  of 
the  mountains  of  Southern  California,  their  barrenness 
being  so  unlike  the  well-loved  green  hills  of  Vermont 
or  the  richly-clad  mountains  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Pennsylvania  that  they  were,  at  first,  unpleasing.  But 
in  time  the  eye  became  accustomed  to  the  strange,  and 
then  the  strange  and  unfamiliar  beauties  and  glories 
began  to  be  apparent  —  the  rich  tones  and  colours,  the 
purple  shadows,  the  luminous  atmosphere  that  hovers 
over  them  as  a  benediction. 

There  are  not  a  few  who,  on  earliest  acquaintance, 
find  fault  with  the  very  strength,  the  ardour,  the  bril- 
liancy of  California's  beauty.  One  has  described  this 
as  if  the  pleading  cry  of  Goethe:    "  Light,  more  light!  " 


California's  Romance  and  Beauty        25 

had  been  answered  by  her  in  a  world  sense,  and  the 
whole  country  flooded  with  a  vivid,  clear,  intense, 
striking  light  that  reveals  the  sweetness,  the  glory,  the 
beauty  of  Nature  such  as  is  seldom  seen  in  a  less  vividlv 
lighted  land.  I  never  leave  California  for  the  East  but 
that  I  know  as  soon  as  I  reach  Eastern  Kansas  and 
Illinois  1  shall  lose  this  brilliant  sunshine,  the  clear, 
cloudless,  turquoise  sky,  the  pellucid  atmosphere,  the 
illumination  that  enables  one  to  see  vast  spaces,  that 
enlarges  one's  vision  and  gives  a  hold  upon  scenes  a 
hundred  or  more  miles  away.  Instead  there  comes 
veiled  light,  haze,  mist,  a  grey  sky,  a  circumscribed 
landscape,  a  lusher  and  more  luxurious  greenery  but 
without  the  radiant  and  buoyant  colouring.  Beautiful 
it  is  certainly,  but  with  a  softer,  gentler  beauty,  a  more 
limited  gamut  and  toned  to  a  quieter  key,  which,  at 
first,  is  rather  depressing. 

Yet,  strange  to  say,  California  possesses  also  these 
softer  and  gentler  moods.  In  the  rainy  season,  in  the 
mists  and  fogs  —  high  and  low  — -  we  have  presented 
to  us  often  enough  to  enhance  their  charm  by  the  force 
of  contrast,  these  very  elements  of  quietude  and  subdued 
light  and  colour  that  relieve  what  would  otherwise  be 
likely  to  become  strident,  insistent,  too  dominant  and, 
indeed,  overwhelming.  Strangers  often  ask :  But  don't 
you  get  tired  of  this  eternal,  continuous,  monotonous 
blue  sky  and  brilliant  sunshine?  It  is  because  it  is  not 
eternal,  monotonous,  continuous  that  we  do  not  get  tired 
of  it.  It  is  our  normal  atmospheric  condition,  because 
we  have  more  of  it  than  of  any  other  kind  of  weather, 
yet  it  is  not  perpetual.  It  is  broken  up  with  mornings 
of  fog,  high  or  low,  moist  or  dry,  and  the  winter's  rains, 
which  give  the  greyness,  the  greenness,  the  vagueness 
of  the  landscapes  that  remind  us  of  the  East,  of  Eng- 


26       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

land,     of     Germany    and     all     the     other     softer-toned 
lands. 

Here,  then,  is  heauty  of  both  kinds,  —  restrained  and 
exuberant.  It  is  so  throughout  all  varieties.  Nature 
has  been  prodigal  with  California.  And  her  romances 
are  as  many  and  varied  as  her  beauties.  She  has  had 
Romance  enough  in  her  history  to  generously  supply  a 
dozen  ordinary  states,  and  yet  leave  enough  for  her- 
self, and  in  Beauty  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Almighty 
Himself  designed  her  many  and  varied  expressions  of 
it  for  many  purposes,  not  the  least  important  of  which 
was  that  she  should  thrill,  excite,  arouse,  stimulate, 
quicken  the  aesthetic  sense  of  the  artists,  poets,  sculptors, 
musicians,  orators  and  writers  of  the  world.  As  a  'grow- 
ing maiden,  with  the  proportions  and  beauty  of  a  bud- 
ding Venus,  who  unconsciously  flaunts  her  physical  at- 
tractions in  the  eye  of  the  passer-by,  CaHfornia  is  the 
unconscious  braggart  among  the  States.  She  shouts 
of  her  Yosemite,  Hetch-Hetchy,  Kings  and  Ivern  River 
Canyons,  her  mountain  summits,  her  glacier-made  lakes, 
her  flowers,  and  all  the  rest,  and  she  brags  of  her  Big 
Things  —  Big  Trees,  Big  Mountains,  Big  Lakes,  Big 
Flowers,  Big  Fruits,  Big  Vegetables,  Big  Gold  Discov- 
eries, Big  Railroads,  Big  Fish,  and  Fishermen  —  also 
what  most  fishermen  are  —  and  the  remarkable  and 
astounding  fact  is  that  almost  every  brag  is  strictly  and 
literally  true.  Yesterday  a  woman  made  an  offer  to 
a  festival  committee  in  Los  Angeles  that  she  alone  would 
supply  them  with  one  million  roses  of  one  kind  for  dec- 
orations and  a  hundred  private  gardens  could  duplicate 
the  offer.  Miss  Gordon-Cummings  speaks  with  surprise 
of  seeing,  in  San  Francisco,  four  thousand  calla  lilies 
used  in  the  Easter  decorations  of  one  church.  I  have 
seen   half  a  million  used   for  that  same  purpose.      In 


California's  Romance  and  Beauty        27 

twent}-  pages  of  her  book  one  can  find  twenty  exclama- 
tion points  about  the  bigness  of  things,  —  the  oak-apples, 
the  flowers  —  "I  had  never  dreamt  of  such  wealth  of 
flowers,"  "  California's  lavish  way  of  doing  things,"  ''  on 
a  magnified  scale  as  compared  with  their  garden  c®us- 
ins,"  "  never  before  have  I  seen  Tennyson's  words  so 
well  illustrated,  for  truly 

You  scarce  could  see  the  grass  for  flowers.'  " 

The  Big  Trees,  in  one  of  which  the  half  dozen  m-ules 
and  donkeys  were  stabled,  to  her  wonder  and  amusement ; 
El  Capitan,  which  she  says  should  "  at  least  rank  as 
a  field-marshal  in  the  rock-world,"  and  so  on.  And  she 
is  but  a  type  of  all  the  observant  travellers  who  have 
recorded  their  impressions  since  California  was  discov- 
ered. 

Hence,  while  I  do  not  profess  to  know  what  beauty 
is  to  others,  and  it  may  be  that  my  selections  of  subjects 
for  presentment  in  these  pages  may  not  meet  with  uni- 
versal approval,  I  do  know  that  California  herself  can 
satisfy  every  ideal,  conception  or  definition,  if  one  but 
visits  her  in  a  sincere  and  receptive  condition. 


CHAPTER    III 

UNDER    THE    TREAD    OF    INDIAN    FEET 

A  VIRGIN  California !  An  uncharted  land !  A  new 
land  to  explore! 

What  must  Cabrillo  have  felt  as,  in  his  caravel,  he 
'  first  sighted  the  Coronado  Islands,  entered  San  Diego 
Bay,  glimpsed  the  Sierra  Madre  and  snow-crowned  San 
Jacinto,  San  Gorgonio  and  San  Bernardino,  sailed 
around  San  Clemente  and  Santa  Catalina,  rounded  Point 
Concepcion,  and  Point  Lobos,  caught  the  sweep  of  Mon- 
terey Bay,  heard  the  dash  of  the  surf  on  the  Farallones, 
swept  into  the  mists  and  fogs  which  hid  the  Golden 
Gate  for  another  two  hundred  years,  and  battled  with 
the  down-sweeping  northern  storms  that  struck  Cape 
Mendocino? 

What  rivers  had  that  fair-looking  land?  What  flow- 
ers and  shrubs,  what  trees  and  fruits,  what  animals  and 
birds,  what  horrors  and  terrors,  what  volcanoes  and 
miasmas,  what  gorgons  and  dragons,  what  Amazons 
and  Titans,  what  Polyphemuses  and  Centaurs?  What 
was  hidden  in  those  mountain  ranges  whose  snowy  bat- 
tlements reached  to  highest  heaven?  What  wild  and 
ferocious  animals  roamed  through  those  trackless  for- 
ests, portions  of  which  reached  down  to  the  ocean's 
shore?  What  peoples  inhabited  those  fertile  valleys  and 
dwelt  around  the  many  lakes  that  undoubtedly  dotted 
the  mountain  valleys? 

Oh,  to  have  had  the  joy  of  being  the  first  to  explore 

28 


Under  the  Tread  of  Indian  Feet         29 

this  God-blessed  region,  to  have  been  its  Columbus,  its 
Livingstone,  its  Peary;  to  have  been  the  first  to  solve 
its  mysteries,  discover  its  glories,  enjoy  its  charms,  bask 
in  its  delights,  revel  in  its  surprises,  thrill  at  its  wonders, 
flee  from  its  terrors,  gaze  upon  its  beauties. 

Man  was  here,  certainly.  But  he  was  the  untouched, 
untrained,  unspoiled,  simple,  spontaneous,  free,  wild 
child  of  Nature.  He  knew  no  artificiality,  no  conven- 
tions, no  restraints,  no  bondage,  save  those  imposed  by 
the  blind  forces  that  operated  around  him,  or  by  the 
will  of  his  enemy  amongst  beasts  or  other  men. 

There  was  not  a  house  in  the  land,  not  a  boat  on  one 
of  its  rivers.  There  was  no  store,  no  factory,  no  mill, 
no  power-plant,  no  wagon,  no  horse,  no  cow,  no  sheep, 
no  harness,  no  saddle,  no  plough,  no  saw,  no  chisel,  no 
adze,  no  plane.  No  whistle  of  engine  disturbed  the  mid- 
night air,  nor  clangour  of  bell  the  early  morning  hours, 
for  there  was  not  a  foot  of  railway  track,  no  engine, 
no  car,  no  depot,  no  round-house  in  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land.  There  was  no  city,  town  or  vil- 
lage, only  the  rude  ranchcrias,  or  collections  of  tule  or 
arrow-weed  huts  of  the  natives,  or  the  solitary  kish  of 
the  hunter  on  the  hillside.  There  was  not  a  church, 
meeting-house,  temple,  or  cathedral,  a  school,  college, 
university  or  other  institution  of  learning  from  North 
to  South,  East  to  West.  There  was  not  even  a  City 
Hall,  Justice  Court.  Hall  of  Records,  Court-House, 
Prison,  Jail,  Penitentiary,  or  Capitol  in  the  country, 
neither  was  there  policeman,  judge,  lawyer,  legislator, 
jailer,  warden,  or  governor.  Rude  physician  there  was, 
certainly,  but  he  trusted  in  herbs,  in  baths,  in  charms 
and  portents,  even  as  the  chief  trusted  to  his  physical 
prowess  to  retain  the  supremacy  his  strong  right  arm 
had  won. 


So       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

There  was  no  newspaper,  magiazine,  or  book,  no  type- 
case,  linotype,  monotype,  or  printing-press,  not  even  a 
typewriter,  a  manifolder  or  a  multiplier. 

There  was  no  city,  therefore  no  paved  street,  nor 
made  road  leading  from  one  place  to  another ;  not  a 
smoke-stack,  a  tower,  a  sky-scraper,  a  spire  to  be  seen. 
No  whistle  or  bell  called  weary  men  and  women  to  work 
in  the  morning,  nor  dismissed  them  more  weary  still 
in  the  evening. 

There  was  not  even  a  theatre,  concert-hall,  vaudeville, 
opera  house,  or  moving-picture  show  from  the  Siskiyous 
to  the  Bay  of  San  Diego,  nor  from  the  eastern  slopes 
of  the  Sierras  to  the  sandy  shores  of  the  Pacific. 

One  would  hunt  in  vain  for  a  distillery,  a  brewery, 
a  saloon,  a  bar,  a  road-house,  an  assignation  house,  a 
house  of  prostitution,  an  opium  joint,  a  tobacco  store 
or  a  gambling-den.  There  was  not  even  a  stock-ex- 
change or  a  "  bucket-shop." 

All  was  simple,  primitive,  first-hand,  natural.  There 
was  not  even  a  hot-house,  a  garden,  an  orchard,  a 
formal-garden,  a  sunken-garden,  a  French  garden,  an 
Italian  garden,  or  any  other  kind  of  a  garden,  save  the 
rude  banks  whereon  the  wild  th3rme  grew,  the  mesa 
heights  where  the  poppy  blazed  in  golden  fervour,  the 
foothills  which  were  bespangled  with  mountain  mahog- 
any, laurel,  manzanita,  holly  and  a  maze  of  chaparral, 
or  the  desert  which  was  dignified  with  the  solemn  yucca 
and  glorified  with  the  colour  of  a  century  of  cactus 
flowers. 

There  was  no  forest  ranger,  no  forest  nursery,  and 
no  forestry  officials ;  not  even  a  conservation  policy,  for 
there  was  no  lumber-camp,  saw-mill,  logging-skid,  in- 
cline, chute  or  boom  in  the  whole  of  the  mountains, 
mesas  or  plains. 


Under  the  Tread  of  Indian  Feet         31 

There  was  not  an  electric  wire,  —  telegraph,  tele- 
phone, long  transmission,  —  or  any  pole  for  sustaining 
it,  or  any  power-plant,  water  or  steam,  or  impounding 
dam  or  transmission  station  in  the  whole  area,  and  not 
a  dynamo  spun  and  sparkled,  not  a  wheel  turned,  not 
a  car  moved  responsive  to  this  gigantic  power  harnessed 
since  the  days  of  Franklin. 

There  was  not  even  a  plough  run  by  hand  or  horse, 
much  less  operated  by  steam-power  or  electricity,  not 
a  harrow,  a  drill,  a  harvester,  or  a  flour-mill ;  nor  was 
there  an  irrigation  dam,  sluice,  head  gate,  diversion  dam, 
main  canal  or  lateral  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the 
other. 

There  were  no  poor-houses,  no  hospitals,  no  asylums 
for  blind,  deaf,  dumb,  incurable  or  insane,  for,  thank 
God,  there  were  none  so  poor  as  to  be  separated  from 
the  rest,  and  so  few  sick,  blind,  dumb,  deaf  or  insane 
that  hospitals  were  not  needed.  The  simple,  primitive 
inhabitants  lived  too  easily,  too  naturally,  too  health- 
fully to  often  become  seriously  sick,  and  never  became 
insane. 

In  a  word  and  again,  in  fact,  the  land  was  native, 
untouched,  virgin. 

Yet  how  beautiful  it  must  have  been.  No  belching 
smoke  defiling  its  pure  skies  and  atmosphere,  no  befoul- 
ing vomitings  of  mills,  factories,  gas-works  and  chem- 
ical manufactories  and  sewers  polluting  the  streams  fed 
by  waters  from  Sierran  lakes,  mountain  springs  and 
glacier  beds,  no  rushing  train  shrieking  and  smoking 
its  fearsome  way  across  the  landscape,  no  city  with  its 
reeking  slums,  defiling  brothels,  haunts  of  misery  and 
concentrated  essence  of  evil  saddening  the  hearts  of  men 
and  women. 

No !    thank  God,  in  its  beginning  it  was  clean,  pure. 


32       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

sweet  and  attractive.  It  was  a  fair  land,  like  a  sweet 
girl-child  blossoming  into  a  glorious  and  attractive 
womanhood,  awaiting  the  coming  of  the  lover  of  which 
she  was  too  ignorant  and  innocent  to  dream,  save  in 
the  most  childlike  way. 

From  North  to  South  the  Coast  Range  of  mountains 
was  waiting  for  the  explorer,  the  geologist,  the  bot- 
anist, the  entoiiTiologist  and  the  rest  to  come  and  tell  of 
its  peaks,  its  ravines,  its  valleys,  lakes,  flowers,  trees, 
insects,  birds  and  beasts. 

On  the  other  side  of  its  vast  inland  valleys  towered 
skyward  another  range,  snowy  and  saw-toothed,  luring 
the  adventurous  white  man  to  climb  its  soaring  peaks, 
its  Mts.  Whitney,  Lyall,  Tyndall,  Brewer,  Hoffman, 
Shasta,  Starr  King,  Cloud's  Rest,  and  to  discover  its 
Yosemite,  its  Hetch-Hetchy,  its  glacial  meadows.  Kings 
River  and  Kern  River  Canyons,  catch  its  rainbow  and 
speckled  trout,  hunt  its  grizzlies  and  other  bears,  feast 
on  its  venison,  gather  its  thousands  of  wild  flowers  and 
stand  in  awe  and  wonder  before  its  groups  of  giant  Big 
Trees. 

For  thousands  of  years,  possibly  millions,  the  Colo- 
rado River  had  been  pouring  into  its  great  empty  spaces 
the  ground-up  rock  debris  • —  in  sand,  silt  and  sediment 
—  of  the  plateaus  of  Wyoming,  Utah,  Colorado  and 
Arizona,  and  making  deserts  —  the  Mohave  and  Colo- 
rado —  leaving  behind  that  awful  and  inspiring  abyss, 
the  Grand  Canyon  of  Arizona,  a  witness  to  the  chiselling, 
rasping,  eroding,  corrasive  forces  of  Nature.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  in  1542,  or  thereabouts,  Captain  Melchior 
Diaz,  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Viceroy  of  New  Spain, 
who  aided  in  the  exploring  of  the  Gulf  of  California 
and  discovered  the  Colorado  River,  sailing  and  rowing 
up  it   for  quite  a  distance,  —  I  say,  it  is  possible  that 


Under  the  Tread  of  Indian  Feet         33 

he  was  the  first  white  man  to  tread  the  burning  sands 
of  this  trackless  desert  region,  but  for  two  hundred 
years  after  him  it  was  to  remain  unseen  by  any  eyes  but 
those  of  the  fearless  Indians,  the  small  remnant  of  whom 
still  cluster  in  a  few  villages  on  the  outskirts  of  civiliza- 
tion and  on  the  high  mountain  peaks  that  overlook  the 
desert- — -desert  no  longer  but  speedily  rivalling  the  Nile 
country  in  the  fertility  and  variety  of  its  resources. 

Further  north  the  great  interior  valleys,  through 
which  ran  the  San  Joaquin  and  Sacramento  Rivers,  were 
untrod  save  but  by  moccasined  feet,  and  the  Valley  of 
the  Moon  —  Sonoma  Valley  —  and  Napa  Valley  and 
Vaca  Valley  and  Honey  Lake  Valley  and  a  score  of 
others  echoed  to  no  voices  except  those  of  wild  animals 
and  the  yells  and  shouts  of  dancing  or  fighting  Indians. 

Its  two  thousand  miles  of  indented  coast  knew  no 
vessel  save  the  rude  bidarkas  or  bolsas  —  rude  dug- 
out and  skin  boats  and  tule  rafts  — >  of  the  Indians. 
What  a  stretch  of  virgin  coast  to  sail  up  and  investi- 
gate. What  harbours  were  there?  What  rivers  flow- 
ing into  the  sea?  Wliat  rude  and  rocky  shores,  what 
bold  promontories,  what  sunken  reefs,  what  delights, 
what  dangers,  what  surprises? 

Beyond  were  the  Channel  Islands  —  Cataliua,  Cle- 
mente,  Santa  Rosa  and  the  rest  —  little  dreaming  that 
a  new  race  was  to  come  and  occupy  them. 

Here,  indeed,  was  a  vast  romance  awaiting  the  new- 
comers in  the  land  they  were  to  see. 

Yet,  it  w^as  not  an  entirely  unpeopled  land.  Stephen 
Powers  carefully  estimated  and  reported  to  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Ethnology  that  there  must  have  been, 
early  in  the  last  century,  not  less  than  seven  hundred 
thousand  Indians  in  California.  These  were  of  various 
tribes   scattered  up  and  down  the  coast,  occupying  the 


34       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

islands,  established  in  the  valleys  and  on  the  foothills, 
in  the  canyons,  in  or  near  the  forests,  on  the  edges  of 
the  deserts  and  on  the  banks  of  the  various  streams. 
In  the  main  they  were  pastoral  and  hunting-  peoples,  not 
much  addicted  to  w^ar,  "  probably  the  most  contented 
and  happy  race  on  the  Continent  in  proportion  to  their 
capacities  for  enjoyment.  .  .  .  They  were  certainly  the 
most  populous,  and  dwelt  beneath  the  most  genial  heav- 
ens, and  amidst  the  most  abundant  natural  produc- 
tions." ^ 

Jeremiah  Gurtin,  C.  Hart  Merriam,  A.  L.  Kroeber, 
and  Pliny  Goddard  have  clearly  shown  they  were  a 
thoughtful,  intelligent,  kindly  disposed  people,  and,  as 
far  as  they  knew  and  understood,  they  were  a  religious 
people.     Gurtin  writes  of  them  thus : 

"  Primitive  man  in  America  stood  at  every  step  face 
to  face  with  divinity  as  he  knew  or  understood  it.  He 
could  never  escape  from  the  presence  of  those  powers 
which  had  constituted  the  first  world,  and  which  com- 
posed all  that  there  was  in  the  present  one.  Man's  chief 
means  of  sustenance  in  most  parts  were  on  land  or  in 
the  water.  Game  and  fish  of  all  sorts  were  under  direct 
divine  supervision.  Invisible  powers  might  send  forth 
game  or  withdraw  it  vei-y  quickly.  With  fish  the  case 
was  similar.  Connected  with  fishing  and  hunting  was 
an  elaborate  ceremonial,  a  variety  of  observances  and 
prohibitions.  Every  man  had  a  great  many  things  to 
observe  as  an  individual,  a  great  many  also  as  a  mem- 
ber of  his  tribe  or  society. 

"  The  most  important  question  of  all  in  Indian  life 
was  communication  with  divinity,  intercourse  with  the 
spirits  of  divine  personages.  No  man  could  communi- 
cate with  these  unless  the  man  to  whom  they  chose  to 

'  Stephen  Powers  in  Tr-^es  of  California,  Washington,  1877,  P-  A°°- 


Under  the  Tread  of  Indian  Feet         35 

manifest  themselves.  There  were  certain  things  which 
a  man  had  to  do  to  obtain  communication  with  divinity 
and  receive  a  promise  of  assistance;  but  it  was  only 
the  elect,  the  right  person,  the  fit  one,  who  obtained  the 
desired  favour.  For  instance,  twenty  men  might  go 
to  the  mountain  place,  and  observe  every  rule  carefully, 
but  only  one  man  be  favoured  with  a  vision,  only  one 
become  a  seer.  Twenty  others  might  go  to  the  moun- 
tain place,  and  not  be  accounted  worthy  to  behold  a 
spirit;  a  third  twenty  might  go,  and  two  or  three  of 
them  be  chosen.  No  man  could  tell  beforehand  what 
success  or  failure  might  await  him.  The  general  method 
at  present  is  the  following,  the  same  as  in  the  old  time: 

"  Soon  after  puberty,  and  in  eveiy  case  before  mar- 
riage or  acquaintance  with  woman,  the  youth  or  young 
man  who  hopes  to  become  a  doctor  goes  to  a  sacred 
mountain  pond  or  spring,  where  he  drinks  water  and 
bathes.  After  he  has  bathed  and  dressed,  he  speaks  to 
the  spirits,  he  prays  them  to  come  to  him,  to  give  him 
knowledge,  to  grant  their  assistance.  The  young  man 
takes  no  food,  no  nourishment  of  any  sort,  fasts,  as  he 
is  able,  seven  days  and  nights,  sometimes  longer. 

"  All  this  time  he  is  allowed  no  drink  except  water. 
He  sleeps  as  little  as  possible.  If  spirits  come  to  him. 
he  has  visions,  he  receives  power  and  favour.  A  number 
of  spirits  may  visit  a  man  one  after  an.other,  and  prom- 
ise him  aid  and  cooperation.  The  eagle  spirit  may  come, 
the  spirit  of  the  elk  or  the  salmon,  —  any  spirit  that 
likes  the  man.  The  spirit  says  in  substance,  '  Whenever 
you  call  my  name  I  will  come,  I  will  give  my  power  to 
assist  you.'  After  one  spirit  has  gone,  another  may 
appear,  and  another.  A  man  is  not  free  to  refuse  the 
offers  of  spirits,  he  must  receive  all  those  who  come  to 
him.     As  there  are  peculiar  obsei-vances  connected  with 


36       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

each  spirit,  the  doctor  who  is  assisted  by  many  is  ham- 
pered much  in  his  methods  of  Hving.  There  are  spirits 
which  do  not  hke  buckskin ;  the  man  to  whom  they 
come  must  never  wear  buckskin.  If  a  man  eats  food 
repugnant  to  his  spirit,  the  spirit  will  kill  him.  As  each 
spirit  has  its  favourite  food,  and  there  are  other  kinds 
which  to  it  are  distasteful,  we  can  understand  easily 
that  the  doctor  who  has  ten  spirits  or  twenty  (and  there 
are  some  who  have  thirty)  to  aid  him  is  limited  in  his 
manner  of  living.  Greatness  has  its  price  at  all  times, 
power  must  be  paid  for  in  every  place.  Those  for  whom 
the  spirits  have  no  regard,  and  they  are  the  majority, 
return  home  without  visions  or  hope  of  assistance;  the 
spirits  are  able  to  look  through  all  persons  directly,  and 
straightway  they  see  what  a  man  is.  They  find  most 
people  unsuited  to  their  purposes,  unfit  to  be  assisted."  ^ 
I  have  given  this  somewhat  lengthy  quotation  from 
Curtin  to  help  eradicate  the  false  and  slanderous  no- 
tions many  Americans  have  gained  from  reading  the 
unjust  sentences  passed  upon  the  Indian  by  the  earlier 
of  the  white  concjuerors  of  California's  soil.  The  padres 
unconsciously  regarded  them  as  the  most  l)enighted  of 
human  kind  because  they  had  no  conception  of  religion 
as  taught  by  their  one  and  only  infallible  church;  the 
miner  flaunted  him  as  a  "  digger,"  because  he  knew 
nothing  of,  and  cared  less  for,  the  gold  and  silver  dis- 
covered in  his  mountains  and  placers;  the  farmer,  who 
coveted  his  land  and  drove  him  forth  from  the  home- 
steads and  hunting-grounds  he  had  possessed  for  cen- 
turies, vilified  him.  in  self-justification,  as  "  a  mean, 
thieving,  revengeful  scoundrel,  far  below  the  grade  of 
the  most  indifferent  white." 

Suffice  it  to  say  these  ideas  are  in  the  main  untruth- 
f      *  Creation  Myths  of  Primitive  America,  Introduction,  p.  xxvi. 


Under  the  Tread  of  Indian  Feet         37 

ful  and  unjust.  Helen  Hunt  Jackson,  in  Raniona,  has 
given  us  a  far  more  truthful  picture  of  the  real  Indian, 
and  the  traveller  to  California  will  do  well  to  read  that 
pathetic  and  soul-stirring  novel  ere  he  fixes  his  opinions 
in  regard  to  the  Indians. 


CHAPTER    IV 

FRANCISCAN    MISSIONS    OF    CALIFORNIA 

He  wears  a  brown  serge  garment  that  clothes  him 
/  from  head  to  foot.  It  is  girdled  with  a  white  cord  on 
which  are  the  mystic  knots  of  the  Trinity.  The  cowl 
is  thrown  back,  revealing  the  tonsured  head.  His  feet 
are  bare  save  for  sandals.  His  lips  move  as  in  prayer; 
his  eyes  are  uplifted  as  in  reverent  adoration,  and  upon 
his  face  is  the  smile  that  comes  only  to  the  '*  pure  in 
heart  "  who  *'  see  God." 

He  is  only  a  Franciscan  monk,  a  Mallorca  friar,  one 
vowed  to  poverty,  obedience  and  chastity,  a  lowly  man, 
a  humble  man.  Would  you  call  him  refined?  I  know 
not.  Would  you  call  him  cultured?  Save  in  the  lit- 
erature of  his  church,  and  in  the  culture  of  a  childlike 
soul  and  simple  mind,  I  trow  not!  Would  you  deem 
him  great?  Save  in  the  victories  he  won  in  the  name 
of  Christ  over  the  pagan  hearts  of  the  aborigines  of 
California  he  knew  no  fame. 

Whence  came  he?  Whither  was  he  going?  What 
did  he  achieve?  AVhere  lies  he  buried? 
,  Only  a  Mallorca  friar  of  the  Franciscan  order,  com- 
manded to  establish  a  chain  of  missions  in  Alta  Cali- 
fornia for  the  Christianization  and  civilization  of  the 
thousands  of  Indians  settled  there,  obeying  the  rule  of 
his  fraternity  that  he  should  walk  and  not  ride,  where 
possible,  trudging  patiently,  gladly,  joyously  to  his  work 
along  the  weary  miles  of  the  rock-ribb'd  peninsula  of 

38 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        39 

Baja  (Lower)  California.  For  he  was  a  true  mission- 
ary at  heart;  it  was  meat  and  drink  to  him  to  thus  serve 
his  Divine  Lord  in  giving  of  his  best,  his  all,  to  the 
savages  he  sought  to  win. 

Vessels  had  gone  by  sea  with  provisions  for  mission- 
aries  and  protecting  soldiers,  with  vestments,  bells,  or- 
naments and  needful  utensils  for  the  mission  churches 
to  be  established;  two  land  expeditions  were  guiding 
colonists  and  soldiers  for  the  pueblos  and  presidios  that 
were  to  be  founded ;  herds  of  oxen,  horses,  sheep,  goats, 
mules  and  burros  in  long  line  taxed  the  patience  of 
caballeros  and  peons  to  keep  them  in  motion  and  in 
order;  evenings  saw  the  long  lines  stop,  sup,  camp  and 
sleep,  and  mornings  saw  them  wake,  breakfast,  saddle 
and  tparch.  Then  the  Ahado  or  morning  hymn  fell  in 
greater  or  lesser  sweetness  and  melody  upon  the  morn- 
ing air,  as  stout-voiced,  leather-lunged  priest  and  sol- 
dier, or  gentle-toned,  sweet-spirited  wife,  mother,  maiden 
or  child  took  it  up,  and  God  was  worshipped  in  His 
own  blessed  out-of-doors. 

What  romance  was  here  as  they  marched,  slept,  and  ^ 
marched  again  day  after  day,   night  after  night,   until 
the  new  Romance  began  in  the  new  land.      San  Diego 
was  reached  —  San  Diego,  blessed  by  Cabrillo,  two  hun-  ^ 
dred   and  twenty  years  before,  and  by  Vizcaino  sixty 
years  later;    San  Diego, 

"  Warmest  daughter  of  the  West." 

San  Diego,  of  which  Joaquin  Miller  sang: 

"  Behold  this  sea,  that  sapphire  sky! 
Where  Nature  does  so  much  for  man, 
Shall  man  not  set  his  standard  high. 
And  hold  some  higher,  holier  plan?  " 


40       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

It  was  a  hundred  years  before  Miller,  yet  Junipero 
Serra  held  this  high  standard,  had  already  formulated 
his  higher,  holier  plan. 

Posts  were  erected,  a  cross-pole  placed  on  their 
crotches,  and  to  this  a  bell  was  swung.  After  a  night 
spent  in  prayer  and  intercession,  of  humble  yet  faithful 
and  believing  petition  to  God,  robed  in  his  designating 
vestments,  the  devoted  priest  swung  the  bell  and  called, 
with  loud  and  fervent  voice,  upon  the  Indians  standing 
on  the  far-away  hills  to  come  and  receive  the  saving 
ordinances  of  the  church.  An  altar  was  raised,  blessed 
and  dedicated  to  God  and  the  Mission  of  San  Diego  de 
Alcala  duly  founded.  How  happy  was  Serra!  Maiden 
wrapped  in  the  romance  of  her  first  affection;  lover  in 
the  bliss  of  his  betrothed's  presence ;  wife  clasping  her 
first-born  to  her  bosom ;  prince  receiving  the  crown 
of  kingship  upon  his  head,  —  none  was  more  wrapped 
in  romantic  happiness  and  ecstatic  bliss  than  this  som- 
bre-robed priest,  telling  his  beads  and  reciting  his  office 
on  that  memorable  night.  Though  he  knew  it  not  Cali- 
fornia's history  was  beginning;  the  day  of  the  Golden 
State  was  dawning;  the  banners  of  Civilization's  last 
great  stand  were  being  planted  there.  It  was  an  epochal 
day,  an  eventful  hour. 

At  the  same  time  part  of  the  party,  led  by  Don  Gas- 
par  de  Portola,  and  spiritually  ministered  to  by  Fray 
Juan  de  Crespi,  marched  northward,  past  where  Los 
Angeles  afterwards  was  to  rise,  the  peerless  queen  of 
California  of  the  south;  where  Santa  Barbara  was  to 
crown  the  hills  of  the  Sun-Down  Sea  with  Beauty  and 
Progress;  past  the  fog-kissed  valley  v\^here  Watson- 
ville,  proud  mistress  of  a  thousand  profitable  apple- 
orchards,  reigns  supreme,  on  .to  the  sands  of  the  Bay 
of  Monterey. 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        41 

Here,  romance  of  romance,  though  these  trained  ex- 
plorers, hardened  soldiers,  keen-visioned  priests  alike 
gazed  and  gazed  upon  shore-line  and  forest-clad  head- 
land, upon  rugged  forelands  and  water-swept  beach  and 
searched  and  searched  for  clearly  described  landmarks; 
though  they  conned  again  and  again  the  drawings  and 
descriptions  of  Vizcaino,  their  "  eyes  were  withholden  " 
so  that  they  saw  not  the  Bay  for  which  they  looked, 
named  in  December,  1603,  by  Vizcaino  after  the  Conde 
de  Monte  Rey,  the  Viceroy  of  New  Spain. 

Whence  had  the  Bay  gone?  Was  witchcraft  at  work 
here?  Tired  and  weary,  footsore  and  disheartened,  the 
soldiers  were  ready  to  believe  anything,  and  even  the 
wise  Crespi  wrote  later  to  his  superior  that  they  sus- 
pected the  port  had  been  filled  up,  because  they  found 
there  some  very  large  sand-dunes  or  sand-ihills  on  the 
coast. 

It  must  be  that  the  earlier  geographers  had  made  a 
mistake,  and  set  the  Bay  down  too  far  to  the  south. 
It  might  be  some  degrees  further  north.  So,  wearily 
they  plodded  on,  past  where  the  City  of  the  Holy  Cross 
(Santa  Cruz)  was  later  to  attract  its  thousands  of  pleas- 
ure-seekers from  the  City  of  the  Golden  Gate  which, 
as  yet,  was  unknown;  over  the  glorious  sequoia-clad 
mountains  where  Bret  Harte  was  to  write  some  of  his 
inimitable  stories;  past  Half-Moon  Bay  to  the  hills 
above  Montara,  where  Harr  Wagner  is  now  building 
a  town  of  restful  peace  and  joyous  content  by  the  shores 
of  Balboa's  Sea,  and  there,  on  those  peaceful  hills,  which, 
as  yet  had  never  heard  the  lowing  of  kine  or  the  bleating 
of  sheep,  or  felt  the  foot-print  of  any  but  the  unshod, 
semi-naked  savage,  these  sun-browned,  weather-beaten, 
travel-stained,  leather-jacketed  soldiers  of  the  King  of 
Spain,  were  the  first  of  the  white  race  to  gaze  upon 


42       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  great  bay  that  was  afterwards  to  bear  the  name  of 
San  Francisco,  where  a  mission  was  to  be  estabHshed 
in  his  honour,  and  to  which,  in  later  years,  the  eager 
of  the  world  were  to  flock  in  impatient  haste,  thus  un- 
consciously adding  to  its  romantic  reputation. 

Is  there  Romance  here,  in  the  Discovery  of  this  Bay? 
Listen  to  the  story! 

Serra  was  a  remarkable  man  in  several  ways,  and 
in  no  way  more  so  than  in  his  childlike  adherence  to  the 
teachings  of  St.  Francis.  To  him  God's  presence  was 
real;  His  help  certain;  His  promises  as  sure  as  if  al- 
ready fulfilled ;  His  rewards  all  ready  to  the  hands  of 
faith.  With  all  his  sagacity,  knowledge,  wisdom  and 
executive  ability  he  possessed  a  most  childlike  mind. 
He  knew  no  such  thing  as  failure,  for  had  not  God 
said  that  His  help  should  be  sufficient  for  those  who 
relied  upon  Him.  He  not  only  trusted  implicitly  in  the 
God  of  St.  Francis,  but  he  was  filled  with  a  childlike 
reverence,  which  amounted  almost  to  an  adoration  of 
St.  Francis  himself.  He  was  jealous  to  a  high  degree 
for  the  seraphic  founder  of  the  Franciscan  order:  it 
grieved  him  to  the  heart  if  there  were  any  suspicion 
that  St.  Francis  was  not  properly  recognized  by  every 
one,  and  his  zeal  on  behalf  of  his  beloved  order  amounted 
to  a  holy  obsession,  that  to  any  one  less  zealous  and 
earnest  must  have  seemed  the  exaggerated  enthusiasm 
of  a  fanatic. 

Consequently  when  the  Visitador-General,  Galvez, 
communicated  to  him  the  instructions  he  had  received 
from  Spain,  viz.,  that  he  was  to  establish  missions  to 
San  Diego,  San  Carlos  and  San  Buena  Ventura,  Serra 
immediately  cried  out :  "  Sir.  is  there  to  be  no  mission 
for  our  father,  St.  Francis?"  to  which  Galvez  replied, 
"  If  St.  Francis  wants  a  Mission,  let  him  cause  his  port 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        43 

to  be  discovered  and  a  Mission  for  hini  shall  be  placed 
there." 

It  must  here  be  recalled  that  as  far  back  as  1595 
Cermeiion  had  entered  into  a  bay,  discovered  by  Drake 
sixteen  years  previously,  and  had  named  it  the  port  of 
San  Francisco.  Vizcaino  also  had  anchored  in  this  bay. 
This  is  now  known  as  Drake's  Bay,  althoug-h  until  the 
discovery  by  Portola's  men  of  the  real  Bay  of  San  L^ran- 
cisco  (the  one  so  called  to-day),  it  was  always  known 
as  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco.  It  was  this  port,  there- 
fore, that  Galvez  desired  St.  Francis  to  point  out  to 
the  explorers,  and  it  was  in  their  search  for  it  and  the 
Bay  of  Monterey  that  they  stumbled  upon  the  discovery  t 
of  the  larger  Bay,  whose  existence  up  to  that  time  had 
been  unknown. 

To  this  day  the  devout  Catholic  regards  the  discovery 
of  this  larger  Bay  of  San  Francisco  as  a  miracle  directly 
traceable  to  Serra's  prayers  and  faith,  and  surely  it  is 
as  much  a  miracle  of  history  as  any  that  is  authentically 
recorded. 

Is  it  not  one  of  the  mysteries  of  history  that  when 
Cabrillo's  ships  sailed  up  the  coast  of  California  they 
passed  by  the  Golden  Gate  without  observing  that  noble 
break  in  the  Coast  Range.  The  outflowing  current  of 
the  Bay  with  its  muddy  waters,  or  the  inflowing  speed 
of  its  tide  escaped  their  notice,  both  when  going  up  and 
returning. 

Drake,  —  the  keen-eyed  rover  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
whose  vessels  harried  the  Spanish  galleons,  and  who 
landed  on  the  shores  of  California  and  claimed  the  fer- 
tile land  for  his  Virgin  Queen,  —  had  his  vision  clouded 
so  that  he  passed  by  this  wide  Golden  Gate. 

Sixty  years  after  Cabrillo,  Vizcaino  came,  and  he  and 
his  topographers  likewise  passed  it  by,  never  dreaming 


44       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

of  its  existence.  There  it  lay,  prepared  by  God  in  the 
far-away  dim  ages  of  the  world's  early  history  for  great 
events,  yet  hidden  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand  until,  in 
the  fulness  of  His  own  good  time,  He  was  ready  to 
reveal  it.  To  Serra,  who  extorted  the  half-jocular  prom- 
ise from  Galvez,  its  discovery  could  have  seemed  no 
other  than  a  miracle,  and  Protestant  though  I  am,  I 
confess  to  a  deep  and  profound  sympathy  with  his 
feeling. 

But  as  yet  the  time  of  its  discovery  had  not  arrived. 
Instead,  the  whole  mission  plan  came  near  to  being 
abandoned. 

When  the  sea  and  land  expeditions  from  Lower  Cali- 
fornia met  at  San  Diego,  Serra  proceeded  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  first  mission  there,  while  the  military 
governor  Portola,  with  officers,  friars,  and  soldiers, 
marched  north  to  locate  the  second  mission  on  the  Bay 
of  Monterey,  which  Vizcaino  had  so  fully  described. 
Portola  had  a  hard  trip  and  an  unsuccessful  one.  He 
and  his  coadjutors  passed  by  the  bay  they  had  gone 
to  seek,  though  they  gave  an  account  of  a  bay  they  saw, 
which,  however,  they  did  not  realize  was  the  one  they 
sought.  In  the  words  of  ancient  Scripture,  "  their  eyes 
were  withheld."  The  result  of  this  withholding  was 
that  they  pushed  on  further  north  and  in  due  time 
reached  the  peninsula  of  San  Francisco  Bay,  and  one 
morning,  as  the  advance  guard  climbed  the  nearest 
I  hill  and  stood  upon  its  crest,  there,  spread  out  at  their 
feet,  lay  the  hitherto  hidden  and  undiscovered  Bay. 
When  Portola  saw  it  he  was  as  surprised  as  his  soldiers. 
I  wonder  what  were  the  inmost  thoughts  of  Padre  Juan 
Crespi,  Serra' s  dear  friend  and  earnest  coadjutor,  when 
his  eyes  fell  upon  it.  Did  he  realize  that  the  prayers 
and  fondest  desires  of  his  superior  were  being  realized? 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        45 

That  this  bay  he  was  gazing  upon  was  to  be  one  of  the 
best  known  bays  in  the  world;  to  be  honoured  by  the 
name  of  the  revered  founder  of  his  order  and  to  have  a 
city  built  upon  its  banks  that  would  in  fifty  short  years 
of  life  compress  as  much  fascinating  romance  as  many 
an  older  city  of  a  thousand  years  of  existence,  —  a  city 
that  would  be  the  Mecca  of  hundreds  of  thousands  from 
every  part  of  the  globe ;  a  city  whose  name  would 
awaken  dreams  of  wealth  untold  in  the  hearts  of  men 
as  diverse  as  the  world  contains ;  a  city  whose  misfor- 
tunes would  arouse  as  much  sympathy  as  its  romance 
had  evoked  of  g"lamorous  expectation. 

These  events,  however,  were  all  in  the  dark  womb 
of  the  future  and  Portola  had  not  the  eye  of  prescience. 
All  that  he  saw  was  that  his  expedition  was  a  failure. 
Monterey  Bay  could  not  be  found,  provisions  were  grow- 
ing scant,  and  hungry  soldiers  are  not  pleasant  travelling 
companions.  The  weather,  too,  was  not  propitious  to 
good  feeling,  and  discouraged,  disheartened,  and  disap- 
pointed, he  gave  orders  to  return  to  San  Diego,  the  idea 
growing  that  the  country  had  better  be  abandoned. 

On  his  arrival  there  he  found  a  state  of  afifairs  that 
materially  added  to  his  discouragement.  The  scurvy 
had  made  serious  inroads  upon  the  soldiers,  fifty  deaths 
already  having  occurred  and  many  still  lying  danger- 
ously ill.  The  vessel,  the  San  Antonio,  that  had  been 
sent  to  San  Bias  for  more  supplies  and  sailors,  had  not 
yet  arrived.  Upon  its  coming  depended  the  provision- 
ing of  the  expedition.  He  surely  expected  that  it  would 
be  there  at  this  time  with  the  food  for  which  his  hungry 
men  clamoured.  It  had  not  yet  come,  and  there  were 
no  signs  of  it.  Food  was  as  scarce  in  San  Diego  as 
it  had  been  with  him,  and  he  was  at  his  wit's  end  to 
know  how  to   feed   his  command.     Disgusted  and  dis- 


46       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

heartened,  he  informed  Serra  that  he  would  abandon  the 
expedition  and  return  to  Lower  CaHfornia. 

Abandon  the  expedition !  Return  to  La  Paz !  Give 
up  the  missionization  of  the  Indians !  Serra  could  not 
believe  his  ears.  His  heart  and  soul  arose  in  a  mighty 
protest.  How  could  he  give  up  this  great  work  to  which 
he  had  been  called?  How  could  he  forsake  this  fair 
new  land  with  its  thousands  of  benighted  Indians,  to 
whom  he  had  already  begun  to  ofifer  the  blessings  of 
salvation  through  Mother  Church?  It  was  impossible! 
It  was  unthinkable ! 

But  there  was  no  question  about  it.  Practically  every 
one  felt  gloomy,  despondent  and  disheartened,  save  him- 
self and  the  devoted  Crespi.  What  could  be  done? 
Was  God's  arm  shortened  that  He  could  not  save  His 
children?  His  faithful  soul  leaped  to  the  truth  that 
"  man's  extremity  is  God's  opportunity,"  and  after 
strengthening  his  own  faith  by  humble  and  earnest 
prayer  he  began  to  encourage  the  others,  from  Portola 
down.  He  pleaded,  begged  and  cajoled  Portola;  he 
even  went  so  far  as  to  conspire  with  Vila,  the  captain 
of  the  San  Carlos,  that  if  Portola  did  abandon  the  ex- 
pedition, he  (Vila)  would  go  in  search  of  Monterey  Bay 
by  sea.  For  Portola  was  already  assured  of  what  he 
afterwards  wrote  to  the  Viceroy,  viz.,  that  "  the  illusion 
that  Monterey  exists  has  been  dispelled,"  and  forget- 
ful of  his  pledge  to  "  perform  his  commission  or  die," 
we  have  seen  that  he  was  resolved  to  return. 

To  Serra  this  was  worse  than  death.  He  could  not 
possibly  bear  it.  He  must  change  Portola's  decision; 
must  be  allowed  to  remain  and  do  his  chosen  work. 
But  Portola  was  a  hard-headed,  self-willed,  autocratic 
soldier,  who  neither  knew  nor  cared  what  a  church- 
man's enthusiasms  were;    one  who  in  the  face  of  per- 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        47 

sonal  discomforts  and  hardships  cared  httle  whether  the 
Indians  were  saved  or  not.  To  him  self-preservation 
was  the  first  law  of  nature.  Why  should  he  and  his 
soldiers  starve  to  death,  because,  forsooth,  an  enthusi- 
astic priest  was  crazy  to  convert  a  race  of  wild  Indians  ? 
His  duty  was  to  his  soldiers  and  himself  and  he  pro- 
posed to  return.  His  was  a  "  practical  "  mind  that  could 
see  little  beyond  the  hardship  and  discomforts  of  the 
present. 

Serra  and  Crespi,  however,  decided  to  remain.  The 
commander  of  one  of  the  vessels,  Don  Vicente  Vila, 
evidently  was  in  such  a  position  of  authority  as  to  con- 
trol his  own  ship,  regardless  of  Portola,  for  Serra  went 
to  him  and  entered  into  a  secret  compact.  If  Portola 
insisted  upon  abandoning  the  expedition  he  and  Crespi 
would  come  aboard  his  vessel  and  remain  until  the  relief 
ship  arrived,  and  then  they  w^ould  go  up  the  coast  and 
search  for  the  missing  Bay  of  Monterey. 

This  was  agreed  to.  In  the  meantime,  as  the  Feast 
Day  of  St.  Joseph  (San  Jose)  was  at  hand,  and  he  was 
the  patron  saint  of  the  expedition,  Serra  proposed  to 
Portola  that  they  should  make  a  novena  to  him.  This 
was  agreed  upon  and  the  novena  was  held  with  all  in 
attendance. 

But  is  it  to  be  assumed  that  Serra  was  contented  with 
these  public  prayers  ?  Too  much  was  involved,  his  heart 
was  too  much  engaged.  He  must  "  pray  without  ceas- 
ing," so  it  is  no  stretch  of  imagination  to  see  him,  alone, 
or  with  his  beloved  brother,  Crespi,  pleading  with  God 
for  his  heart's  desire. 

Now,  Serra,  pray  your  hardest;  call  upon  God  with 
your  greatest  fervour,  for  upon  you  and  your  prayers 
depends  the  continuance  of  this  mission  work  in  Cali- 
fornia, the  salvation  of  the  souls  of  thousands  of  abo- 


48       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

riginal  savages,  and  the  establishment  of  a  new  and 
Christian  civilization  in  a  gloriously  beautiful  and  fer- 
tile land. 

Doubtless  each  morning,  he  and  Crespi,  and  the  others 
v^ho  felt  with  him  in  his  earnest  desire  to  continue  his 
work,  eagerly  scanned  the  ocean  horizon  for  the  longed- 
for  vessel.  They  wore  a  pathway  through  the  brush 
up  the  hillside  to  an  outlook-point  which  gave  them  a 
full  view  of  the  harbour  entrance,  and  morning,  noon  and 
night  visited  it  to  pray  and  watch,  to  watch  and  pray, 
for  the  vessel  upon  which  their  hopes  were  centered. 

When  the  day  of  San  Jose  arrived  a  high  mass  was 
celebrated.  Portola  and  his  officers  were  already  pre- 
pared for  the  retreat  the  following  day.  Eagerly  Serra 
went  to  the  usual  outlook-point.  How  earnestly  he 
scanned  the  ocean's  face,  following  the  horizon  around 
with  anxious  care. 

Just  as  the  sun  was  about  to  disappear,  the  fog,  which 
had  covered  the  ocean  for  days  like  a  funeral  pall, 
opened,  and  there,  joy  of  joys,  was  the  long  looked- 
for  vessel.  Singing  hymns  of  thanksgiving  in  their 
hearts,  and  praising  God  with  their  lips  Serra  and  Crespi 
came  down  to  announce  what  they  had  seen.  Others 
besides  them  had  witnessed  the  drawing  back  of  the 
fog  and  the  revealment  of  the  vessel,  but  though  they 
awaited  until  a  late  hour  of  the  night  there  was  nothing 
further  to  indicate  that  the  vessel  had  entered  the  har- 
bour. 

When  morning  dawned  there  was  no  sign  of  the  ship. 
It  had  disappeared  as  completely  as  if  it  never  had 
existed,  and  all  that  day  Serra  was  badgered  with  the 
doubts  and  questionings  of  those  who  were  assured  that 
he  must  have  been  mistaken. 

Was  it  a  mistake? 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        49 

How  could  it  be  when  he  and  so  many  others  had 
so  clearly  seen  the  vessel?  Its  prow  was  headed  for 
the  bay,  its  sails  were  set,  its  ropes  and  spars  and  masts 
as  clearly  discerned  as  though  it  were  close  at  hand. 

But  when  a  second  day  came  and  still  no  vessel  ap- 
peared at  anchor  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  Por- 
tola's  doubts  were  outspoken,  and  if  some  of  the  more 
skeptical  of  the  soldiers  openly  whispered  their  belief 
that  the  priests  had  dreamed  that  they  had  seen  what 
they  so  longed  to  see.  And  it  is  not  inconceivable  that 
one  or  two  may  have  gone  further  and  charged  that  the 
report  was  a  pure  deception  in  order  to  secure  a  few 
days'  further  delay. 

All  hearts,  however,  were  set  at  rest  on  the  fourth 
day  on  witnessing  the  slow  incoming,  through  the  dense 
fog,  of  the  Sail  Antonio.  Almost  with  ghostly  silence 
she  came  into  sight,  but  no  sooner  had  her  anchor  fallen 
into  the  water  wnth  resounding  S'plash  than  new  life 
entered  the  hearts  of  all  beholders.  Captain  Perez  came 
ashore  and  the  mystery  of  the  appearance  a  few  days 
before  was  solved.  The  vessel,  when  sighted,  was  on 
her  w^ay  to  Monterey,  under  the  belief  that  another  ves- 
sel which  Galvez  had  dispatched  ahead  had  brought  the 
needed  supplies  to  San  Diego.  But,  landing  near  Point 
Concepcion  for  water  and  to  regain  a  lost  anchor,  Perez 
learned  that  the  Monterey  land  expedition  had  returned, 
hence  there  was  no  need  for  him  to  proceed  further. 

New  courage  came  with  the  arrival  of  the  San  An- 
tonio, and  Portola  now  awoke  to  the  consciousness  that 
to  have  abandoned  the  expedition  would  have  been  dis- 
loyalty d  Dios,  al  Rey,  a  mi  onor  —  to  God,  the  King, 
and  his  own  honour.  So  he  plucked  up  courage  and 
reorganized,  sending  Perez  with  Serra  and  two  other 
priests  to   explore   the  newly- found   harbour,   and   then 


50       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

hunt  for  the  Bay  of  Monterey,  while  he  with  a  fair  force 
was  to  follow  by  land. 

On  this  trip,  after  "  a  month  and  a  half  of  rather  hard 
sailing," — ^as  Serra  pathetically  puts  it,  —  they  seem 
to  have  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  Monterey;  "  the 
very  same  harbour  and  unchanged  in  substance  and 
circumstances  from  what  it  was  w^hen  the  expedition  of 
Don  Sebastian  Vizcaino  left  it  in  the  year  1603."  The 
mission  and  presidio  were  duly  founded  and  the  news 
sent  by  special  courier  to  the  Viceroy  in  Mexico.  It 
took  this  man  a  month  and  a  half  to  ride  from  Mon- 
terey to  Todos  Santos  (on  the  peninsula),  allowing  for 
a  four  days'  stop  at  San  Diego.  From  thence  the  letters 
were  sent  by  launch  to  San  Bias,  and  so  on  to  Mexico 
City. 

It  is  almost  impossible  for  us  to-day  to  understand 
the  excitement  this  news  caused  both  in  Mexico  and 
Spain.  Cathedral  bells  were  rung,  and  Court  and  peo- 
ple all  attended  solemn  high  mass  in  token  of  thanks- 
giving. The  Viceroy  issued  a  proclamation  reciting  the 
facts  so  that  all  in  New  Spain  might  know  the  glad 
tidings.  Thus  the  romance  of  the  missions  grew  and 
hearts  beat  high  in  Mexico,  and  later  in  Old  Spain  itself 
as  the  news  of  the  progress  of  California  was  spread. 

Yet  the  romance  was  but  begun.  There  was  to  be 
an  uprising  of  the  Indians  in  San  Diego;  one  of  the 
padres  was  to  be  slain ;  Serra  was  to  live  to  see  eight 
missions  established  before  his  death ;  his  successors 
were  to  carry  on  the  work  until  a  chain  of  buildings  ex- 
tended, a  day's  journey  apart,  from  San  Diego  on  the 
south,  to  San  Francisco  on  the  north,  and  later  even 
as  high  as  Sonoma.  There  were  to  be  struggles  with 
the  Indians,  some  of  the  missions  were  to  be  seized  and 
held  in  rebellion,  some  were  to  be  set  on  fire  and  par- 


THE    SITE    OF   JUNIPERO    OAK   MISSION. 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        51 

tially  destroyed,  and  the  romance  of  converting  a  whole 
native  population  of  barbarians  into  workers  at  every 
then-known  industry  accomplished.  The  remarkable 
mission  buildings  themselves  were  to  arise,  built  by  these 
Indians  under  the  guidance  of  the  padres. 

What  is  more  romantic  than  to  see  —  even  though  it 
be  only  in  the  retrospect  —  the  domination  of  the  infe- 
rior mind  by  the  superior."  And  not  one  over  a  few, 
but  one  over  a  thousand  or  more.  At  each  of  the  mis- 
sions this  domination  was  soon  apparent.  The  hitherto 
free,  wild,  untamed  Indian,  roaming  where  his  own  sweet 
will  dictated,  free  to  come  or  go  as  he  chose,  knowing 
nothing  of  concentrated  effort  except  as  he  doggedly 
followed  his  prey  in  the  hunt  until  it  was  his,  was  soon 
subject  to  the  larger  mind.  By  the  score,  in  fifties, 
hundreds,  thousands,  they  were  gathered  around  the 
mission  establishments,  which  immediately  became  hives 
of  industries.  At  the  ringing  of  the  morning  bell  the 
sleeping  rancheria  —  the  near-by  collection  of  Indian 
kishcs  or  huts  where  the  married  Indians  lived  —  sprang 
into  life;  the  smoke  of  a  hundred  fires  ascended,  and 
each  dusky  woman  prepared  the  morning  meal  for  her 
family.  But  during  the  process  the  "  Call  to  Prayers  " 
bell  was  heard,  and  instantly  all  work  ceased,  all  bowed 
in  reverence,  and  these  aboriginal  men  and  women 
prayed  with  their  lips,  even  if  their  hearts  only  vaguely 
grasped  the  significance  of  the  words  they  uttered. 

In  the  mission  buildings  themselves  the  activity  was 
no  less.  Many  of  the  boys  and  girls  slept  here,  the  boys 
under  the  control  of  a  reliable  and  trustworthy  Indian 
or  Mexican,  and  the  others  equally  under  the  watchful 
eye  of  a  keen  and  masterful  woman.  Here,  however, 
were  no  modern  dormitories  fixed  up  with  all  the  latest 
knick-knacks   for  comfort  and   luxury.      Nor   were  the 


52       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

rooms  models  for  future  architects  and  sanitarians  to 
pattern  after.  The  low  upper  stories  of  the  squat  adobe 
buildings  that  surrounded  the  patio  were  the  bedrooms. 
They  were  reached  by  a  ladder  from  the  ground  floor, 
and  sheepskins  and  the  rude  blankets  woven  by  the 
women  were  all  the  sleeping  gear  provided.  As  soon 
as  the  "  To  bed  "  bell  was  rung,  every  youngster  ap- 
peared, climbed  the  ladder,  found  his  own  place  —  and 
the  ladder  was  removed,  only  to  be  replaced  when  the 
arising  bell  resounded  in  the  morning. 

Then  after  the  morning  meal  and  first  prayers  the 
buzz,  hum,  bustle  and  stir  of  the  real  mission  life  began. 
In  the  weaving-room  the  dull  "bump,  bump,"  of  the 
loom  was  heard,  alternating  with  the  quieter  movement 
of  the  treadles  which  changed  the  heaO\l^.  Near  by  the 
"  swish,  swish,"  of  the  plane,  the  harsh  up  and  down 
stroke  of  the  saw,  the  bite  of  the  adze  or  the  sharp 
tap,  tap  of  the  hammer  denoted  the  carpenter  shop,  while 
from  the  adjoining  blacksmith's  shop  came  the  shrill 
clangour  of  hammer  on  hot  iron  and  the  ring  of  the 
anvil.  In  another  room  women  and  girls  were  sewing 
on  various  garments,  new  or  old  —  for  repairing  had 
to  be  done  daily;  others  were  knitting  or  darning  stock- 
ings—  not  for  themselves,  but  for  the  white  people,  the 
gentes  de  razon.  the  people  of  reason,  those  who  had 
souls,  as  the  Spanish  phrase  of  the  day  had  it. 

A  little  closer  inspection  found  some  of  the  black- 
smiths engaged  on  fine  iron-scroll  and  other  ornamental 
work,  the  carpenters  were  cabinet-makers,  and  even  sil- 
versmiths and  jewellers  were  at  work.  Quite  an  ex- 
tensive leather-working  establishment  was  carried  on, 
for  saddles  were  used  by  everybody,  and  wristlets  and 
scores  of  other  useful  things  were  made  of  leather  in 
those  days.     But  it  was  not  simple,  plain  tanned  leather. 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        53 

With  rare  skill  —  at  times  rising  to  genius  —  the  leather 
was  carved  by  hand  into  appropriate  and  striking  de- 
signs, designs  that  would  delight  the  heart  of  the  artist 
of  to-day  could  he  but  catch  their  spirit  and  power. 

Outside  the  ruder  processes  of  tanning  were  going 
on ;  in  yonder  corral  thousands  of  sheep  were  being 
sheared  by  Indian  shearers;  in  another  a  hundred  cows 
were  being  milked ;  while  in  the  near-by  milk-house 
butter-  and  cheese-making  were  going  on  in  the  hands 
of  well-trained  and  skilful  Indian  women  and  maidens. 
From  the  stable  early  in  the  morning  came  the  sound 
of  the  saddling-up  of  the  cow-ponies,  for  the  first  cow- 
boys of  California  were  the  Indians.  They  followed  the 
rapidly  increasing  herds  of  horses  and  cattle,  rounded 
up  the  stock,  branded  the  additions,  killed  the  beef 
needed  for  the  establishment,  as  well  as  for  the  presidios 
and  the  various  vessels  that  came  into  the  near-by  ports. 

Qiuirts  and  riatas  had  to  be  made,  branding-irons 
and  saddles,  and  when  aiiimals  were  killed  fat  was  ren- 
dered, some  portions  "  jerked  "  —  that  is,  salted  and 
sun-dried  —  or  cured  and  smoked.  Outside  and  inside 
bee-hive  ovens  were  made  hot,  for  bread,  as  well  as 
meats,  had  to  be  baked  for  the  multitude  of  hungry 
mouths,  while  on  open  hearth  and  out-of-door  fires  sim- 
mering pots  gave  forth  mouth-watering  odours  of  cook- 
ing meats,  stews  and  the  like.  Yonder  women  were 
grinding  corn  on  primitive  metates,  —  this  was  before 
water-wheel  mills  were  erected,  —  others  were  pounding 
acorns  in  their  mortars,  while  the  smaller  boys  and  girls 
were  shelling  the  acorns  and  pine-nuts  (piniones)  gath- 
ered from  the  near-by  mountains. 

Then,  more  important  than  all  else,  the  men  and 
youths,  under  the  direction  of  the  padres,  were  making 
adobe  bricks,  squaring  rocks  quarried  near  by  and  hauled 


54       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

on   wooden   "  boats  "    or  sleds   by   patient   thick-necked 
oxen,  so  well-described  later  by  Joaquin  Miller : 


What  great  yoked  brutes  with  briskets  low, 
With  wrinkled  necks  like  buffalo, 
With  round,  brown,  liquid,  pleading  eyes, 
That  tum'd  so  slow  and  sad  to  you, 
That  shone  like  love's  eyes  soft  with  tears. 
That  seem'd  to  plead,  and  make  replies. 
The  while  they  bow'd  their  necks  and  drew 
The  creaking  load;  and  look'd  at  you. 
Their  sable  briskets  swept  the  ground, 
Their  cloven  feet  kept  solemn  sound. 

Here  others  were  hewing  and  squaring  timbers  for 
roof  beams;  cutting  strips  of  buckskin  to  tie  the  beams 
together,  for  nails  were  few  and  far  between,  having 
to  be  made  by  hand  on  the  anvils. 

With  priests  for  architects,  contractors,  builders,  gang 
lx3sses.  — •  and  there  were  never  more  than  two  priests 
to  a  Mission  to  have  charge  of  all  the  spiritual  labours 
as  well  as  of  the  varied  industries  here  outlined,  —  the 
Indians  dug  and  laid  the  foundations,  built  the  walls, 
set  the  forms  for  the  arched  corridors,  elevated  the 
heavy  roof  beams  and  tied  them  in  place  with  their  raw- 
hide strips,  securely  covered  them  with  tiles  —  made 
and  baked  by  their  fellows  near  by  —  and  then  plas- 
tered the  walls  inside  and  out,  whitewashed  them,  and 
finally  decorated  and  adorned  altar  and  sanctuary,  sac- 
risty and  choir  loft. 

Oh,  the  romance  and  wonder  of  it  all.  It  fairly  thrills 
the  imagination  to  reconstruct  these  scenes  of  a  not  far 
bye-gone  day.  It  was  one  of  the  earliest  baptisms,  how- 
ever, of  the  glorious  romance  that  was  designed  for 
California  from  the  foundation  of  the  world. 

Nor  must  we  forget  the  romance  that  attended  the 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        55 

founding  and  speedy  destruction  of  two  Missions  on  the 
Colorado  River,  near  where  to-day  that  marvellous  mon- 
ument of  man's  engineering  skill  —  the  Laguna  Dam  — 
stands  to  divert  the  waters  of  the  raging  Colorado 
to  useful  piirposes.  The  Comandante-General  of  New 
Spain  ordered  that  these  two  Missions  should  be  estab- 
lished on  a  different  system  from  that  which  had  already 
been  found  to  work  so  admirably.  The  Indians  were 
not  to  be  under  the  personal  control  of  the  fathers,  or 
as  Bancroft  states  it :  "  The  priests  were  to  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  temporal  management,  and  the  native 
converts  were  not  to  be  required  to  live  in  regular  Mis- 
sion Communities,  but  might  receive  lands  and  live  in 
the  pueblos  with  the  Spaniards.  Each  pueblo  was  to 
have  ten  soldiers,  ten  settlers,  and  six  labourers."  Fur- 
thermore there  was  to  be  no  presidio  or  garrison  to 
protect  the  Mission.  "  The  soldiers  were  to  protect  the 
settlers,  who  were  to  be  granted  house-lots  and  fields, 
while  the  friars  were  to  act  as  pastors  to  attend  to  the 
spiritual  interests  of  the  colonists,  but  at  the  same  time 
to  be  missionaries  "  to  the  Indians. 

Two  Missions  were  established,  one,  La  Purisima 
Concepcion,  near  to  the  junction  of  the  Gila  and  Colo- 
rado Rivers,  on  the  site  of  the  present  Fort  Yuma,  Cali- 
fornia, and  the  other,  San  Pedro  y  San  Pablo  de  Bicuher, 
about  eight  miles  southwest  of  Concepcion.  Twenty 
colonists,  twelve  labourers,  and  twenty-one  soldiers,  all 
with  their  families,  arrived  in  1780.  In  addition  there 
were  two  priests  at  each  Mission. 

That  the  plan  was  an  ill-considered  one  speedily  be- 
came evident,  and  on  the  17th  of  July,  1781,  after  less 
than  a  year  had  elapsed,  the  Yumas  massacred  soldiers 
and  settlers  and  the  friars,  set  fire  to  the  buildings,  and 
carried  away  the  women  and  children  as  captives.     Fur- 


56       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

thermore,  Captain  Rivera,  with  eleven  or  twelve  men 
from  Sonora,  and  five  or  six  sent  to  meet  him  from  the 
California  presidios,  were  encamped  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  Colorado,  opposite  Mission  Concepcion,  and  they 
too  were  attacked  and  all,  save  one,  overpowered  and 
massacred. 

Fortunately  nothing  so  serious  as  this  happened  in 
the  other  and  more  carefully  conducted  Missions  of 
California.  They  continued  their  work  as  it  was  begun. 
Then,  after  about  sixty  years  of  useful,  blessed  activity, 
there  came  the  romance  of  their  fall.  From  their  very 
inception  it  had  always  been  the  intention  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  close  the  paternal  work  of  these  institutions 
as  soon  as  the  Indians  were  deemed  sufficiently  civilized 
and  Christianized  to  live  out  their  own  lives.  Under 
the  Mission  system  they  were  under  what  corresponded 
to  parental  control.  Their  lands  were  held  by  the  church 
in  trust,  and  the  product  of  their  labours  was  disposed 
of  by  the  padres.  In  due  time  this  system  was  to  came 
to  an  end,  their  lands  were  to  be  allotted  to  them  in 
individual  families  and  they  were  to  be  given  absolute 
control,  like  any  other  citizen,  under  the  common  law, 
of  their  own  lives  and  persons,  and  the  mission  "  father  " 
was  to  give  place  to  the  ordinary  parish  priest.  This 
was  the  difference  between  a  "  mission  "  and  an  ordinary 
**  parish  church,"  and  between  a  "  mission  father  "  and 
a  "  parish  priest."  And  this,  in  efifect,  is  what  is  meant 
by  the  word  Secularization. 

No  one,  therefore,  could  justly  have  complained  if 
the  order  of  secularization  had  been  wisely  and  prop- 
erly made  at  the  proper  time.  When  that  should  have 
been  done  might  always  have  been  a  matter  for  discus- 
sion. The  way  in  which  it  was  actually  accomplished 
leaves   no   room    for   discussion.      It   was   done   by  the 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        57 

Mexican  politicians,  after  Mexico  Avas  severed  from 
Spain  and  had  become  a  republic,  solely  to  obtain  the 
revenues  of  the  Missions,  and  without  any  real  regard 
for  the  welfare  or  the  rights  of  the  Indians. 

Well  might  Charles  Warren  Stoddard  express  his 
fierce  indignation  in  his  Bells  of  Sail  Gabriel: 

"  Where  are  they  now,  O  tower! 

The  locusts  and  wild  honey? 
Where  is  the  sacred  dower 

That  the  bride  of  Christ  was  given? 
Gone  to  the  wielders  of  power, 

The  raisers  and  minters  of  money; 
Gone  for  the  greed  that  is  their  creed  — 

And  these  in  the  land  have  thriven." 

It  was  under  this  so-called  secularization  that  the 
Indians  were  left  without  their  former  beloved  guides 
and  pastors,  robbed  by  unscrupulous  politicians  on  every 
hand  and  in  every  conceivable  way,  their  churches  aban- 
doned, and  in  some  cases  despoiled  until  they  fell  into 
dilapidation  and  ruin.  The  Indians  themselves  were 
deliberately  placed  upon  toboggan  slides  of  perdition 
that  were  greased  with  all  the  vices  the  selfishness,  cu- 
pidity and  heartlessness  of  the  superior  race  (!)  could 
devise. 

Then  came  the  American  with  his  racial  arrogance  « 
and  besotted  ignorance  (as  far  as  the  Indian  was  con- 
cerned), and  he  aided  in  hastening  the  swift  slide  of 
the  "  digger  "  to  all  the  hells  there  are,  and  complacently 
saw  the  "  old  mud  churches  "  that  the  devotion  of  sixty 
years  had  built  crumble  into  ruins. 

The  awakening   from   this   indifference   and  hostility  . 
is  another  of  the  romantic  epochs  of  Mission  history. 
There  were  always  a   few  whose  hearts  were   rent  at 
what  was  going  on,  —  Spanish,   Mexicans,   Americans, 


58       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Protestants  as  well  as  Catholics,  —  but  no  concerted 
movement  was  undertaken  to  arrest  the  unnecessary  and 
altogether  reprehensible  decay  of  the  Mission  structures 
and  the  relentless  driving  out  and  down  of  the  Indians 
until  Helen  Hunt  Jackson,  with  pen  and  voice  of  flaming 
eloquence,  expressing  fiery  and  blazing-  indignation,  in 
her  Ramona  and  other  writings,  aroused  the  people  of 
California  and  the  United  States  to  what  they  were 
losing.  Ramona  formed  an  epoch.  Later  Miss  Tessa 
L.  Kelso,  the  librarian  of  the  city  of  Los  Angeles,  Miss 
Anna  E.  Pitcher  of  Pasadena,  and  finally  Charles  F. 
Lummis,  editor  of  Out  West,  organized  "  The  Land- 
marks Club."  His  editorial,  entitled  "  A  New  Crusade," 
which  appeared  in  The  Land  of  Sunshine  for  December, 
1895,  makes  interesting  reading  to-day.  Among  other 
things  he  said :  ''  Of  those  who  come  merely  to  see  Cali- 
fornia, a  vast  proportion  are  attracted  by  our  Romance. 
To  argue  for  the  preservation  of  the  Missions  from  the 
point  of  view  of  their  intellectual  and  artistic  value  is 
needless  here.  ...  It  is  enough  to  recall  the  material 
truth  that  the  Missions  are.  next  to  our  climate  and  its 
consequences,  the  best  capital  California  has. 

"  There  are  in  this  State  twenty-one  of  the  old  Span- 
ish Missions,  besides  their  several  branch  chapels.  Seven 
Missions  and  a  few  chapels  are  in  Southern  California, 
and  these  are  not  only  the  oldest  but  historically  and 
architecturally  the  most  interesting.  A  few  are  reoc- 
cupied  and  utilized  for  places  of  worship.  The  others 
have  been  of  necessity  practically  abandoned  since  the 
secularization.  They  are  not  vital  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  now;  but  they  are  everything  to  us,  whether 
we  have  souls  —  or  pockets.  They  are  all  falling  to 
decay:  partly  by  age,  partly  through  vandalism  and 
neglect.     When   the  roof  goes,   our  swift   winter  rains 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        59 

do  the  rest.  In  ten  years  from  now  —  unless  our  intel- 
ligence shall  awaken  at  once  —  there  will  remain  of 
these  noble  piles  nothing  but  a  few  indeterminable  heaps 
of  adobe. 

"  Now  there  is  not  in  the  civilized  world  another 
country  so  barbarous  that  this  would  be  permitted.  In 
poor  old  Spain  the  very  stables  of  these  deserted 
churches  would  be  scrupulously  preserved.  In  despised 
Italy  they  would  be  guarded  as  we  guard  our  —  for- 
tunes. In  hateful  England,  Heaven  pity  the  vandal  that 
should  move  one  stone  from  another  in  them.  In  im- 
moral France,  there  is  at  least  morality  enough  to  hold 
sacred  tlie  artistic  and  the  venerable.  It  is  only  in  the 
Only  Country  in  the  World  that  such  precious  things 
are  despised  and  neglected  and  left  to  be  looted  by  the 
storm  and  the  tourist. 

"  This  is  a  new  community,  and  many  things  are 
thus  far  forgiven  its  youth ;  but  there  will  never  be 
pardon  if  we  let  this  sin  go  further.  We  shall  deserve 
and  shall  have  the  contempt  of  all  thoughtful  people 
if  we  suffer  our  noble  Missions  to  fall." 

As  the  result  of  this  and  similar  rousing  pleas  and 
constant  activities  in  this  direction  Mr.  Lummis,  and 
those  who  banded  themselves  with  him,  were  able  to 
do  incalculable  good  in  the  work  of  preserving  what 
Time's  ruthless  hand  had  left  to  us  of  these  historic  and 
romantic  structures.  Hence  to  them  we  owe  many 
thanks  that  the  beauty  of  the  Missions  is  still  apparent 
enough  for  us  to  enjoy.  This  can  be  done  only  by  a 
personal  visit  to  each  one. 

The  location  of  every  one  of  these  Missions  is  deserv- 
ing especial  mention  and  attention.  Seldom  did  the 
builders  make  any  mistake  In  their  choice  of  site. 

San  Diego,  the  first  founded,  as  originally  established 


60       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

at  Old  Town,  had  an  outlook  over  Bay  and  Point, 
islands,  sea-shore  and  near  and  far-away  mountains. 
Expert  travellers  and  observers  tell  us  this  is  one  of 
the  rare  and  perfect  views  of  the  world.  In  its  more 
secluded  location,  the  transferred  Mission,  in  the  valley 
six  miles  away,  overlooking  the  San  Diego  River,  the 
olive-orchard  and  the  wide  stretch  of  fields  beyond,  gave 
charm  to  the  eye  and  satisfaction  to  the  senses. 

San  Luis  Rey,  in  its  dignified  position  on  the  rising 
ground  of  its  own  valley,  like  Milan  Cathedral,  attracts 
the  eye  from  every  spot  from  which  it  can  be  seen. 

San  Juan  Capistrano,  less  elevated,  was  still  charm- 
ingly located  near  smiling  foothills  adown  which  laugh- 
ing and  babbling  brooks  wended  their  merry  way  to  the 
near-by  sea,  whose  headlands  towered  up  as  guardians 
to  the  friars  who  gazed  upon  the  rugged  face  of  the 
Pacific  when  lashed  into  turbulence  by  the  winds  of 
the  North. 

San  Gabriel  reposed  in  the  lap  of  a  mountain-begirt 
valley,  where  Alpine  glow  smiled  with  every  sunset  and 
every  sunrise  saw  one  of  the  fairest  regions  of  earth. 
Here  flower-spangled  Pasadena  now  reigns  as  the  Queen 
of  Rose-Tournament  cities,  and  the  Mount  Lowe  Rail- 
way scales  those  sun-kissed  mountains  with  careless 
ease,  giving  to  thousands  of  visitors  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  views  of  transcendent  glory  and  beauty  in 
the  valley  named  after  heaven's  Archangel. 

San  Fernando,  Rey.  was  not  the  less  blessed  in  its 
glorious  valley,  foothill  and  mountain  outlook,  while 
San  Buenaventura  added  the  sea-beach,  the  rocky  shores, 
the  far-away  Channel  Islands,  and  the  pearly-faced  Pa- 
cific Ocean. 

Santa  Barbara,  like  Jerusalem  to  the  psalmist,  was 
"beautiful   for  situation,   the  joy  of  the  whole  earth." 


THE    CHIMES,    SAK    GABRIEL   MISSION. 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        61 

for  all  who  see  it  even  to-day,  hemmed  in  by  tree-growths 
and  modern  homes,  stand  transfixed  with  the  beauty 
and  charm  of  its  superb  location. 

Santa  Ines,  Mission  of  the  Virgin  and  Martyr  Agnes, 
more  like  San  Luis  Rey  and  San  Gabriel,  stands  in  a 
quiet  valley  where  one  looks  instinctively  for  sheep  and 
shepherds,  and  on  the  mountain  slopes  of  which  beau- 
tiful trees  lure  the  eyes  to  the  peaceful  quiet  of  the  star- 
lit skies. 

La  Purisima  Concepcion,  too,  nestles  in  such  a  se- 
cluded valley  as  the  Holy  Maiden  might  have  sought 
when  the  angels  had  informed  her  that  she  was  about 
to  bear  a  son. 

San  Luis,  Obispo  —  proud  Saint  and  Bishop  —  had 
a  more  lordly  location.  Near  to  two  commanding  peaks, 
bearing  his  official  name,  with  surroundings  of  valley 
and  snow-clad  mountains,  named  after  Santa  Lucia,  his 
Mission  was  far  more  wonderful  and  striking  in  loca- 
tion when  it  stood  alone  than  when,  as  now,  surrounded 
with  the  varied  houses  of  men  of  high  and  low  degree. 

San  Miguel,  Arcangel,  companion  to  San  Gabriel,  had 
a  no  less  noble  valley  for  the  location  of  his  Mission, 
while  that  dedicated  to  Our  Lady  of  Solitude  was  near 
to  the  Salinas  River,  with  sequoia-clad  hills  behind  and 
far-away  Sierras  before : 

"  A  swaying  line  of  snowy  white, 
A  fringe  of  heaven  hung  in  sight 
Against  the  blue  base  of  the  sky," 

while  beds  and  beds,  acre  after  acre,  of  golden  glowing 
poppies  lay  between. 

Then  who  that  has  stood  before  dignified  San  Antonio 
de  Padua  has  not  felt  that  some  heavenly  visitant  to 
earth  selected  this  spot  for  the  well-beloved  of  his  Lord? 


62       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

With  an  oak-dotted  valley,  a  quietly-flowing  stream 
before,  and  a  glorious  tree-  and  chaparral-clad  moun- 
tain behind  it  seemed  like  a  building  planted  of  God. 

And  so  also  with  San  Juan  Bautista,  Mission  San 
Jose,  Santa  Clara,  San  Rafael,  and  San  Francisco  So- 
lano. All  are  in  fertile  valleys  with  mountains  surround- 
ing and  looking  down  in  blessing  upon  them.  San 
Francisco  de  Assisi  was  especially  favoured,  as  was  also 
San  Carlos  Borromeo  in  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Carmelo. 
The  former  site  was  chosen  by  that  brave,  energetic  and 
public-spirited  officer,  Don  Juan  Bautista  de  Anza,  who 
marched  from  Northern  Sonora  over  the  wastes  of 
Arizona,  across  the  Colorado  River  and  the  desolate 
desert  of  the  same  name,  by  San  Gabriel,  Santa  Barbara 
and  Santa  Clara  to  the  newly-discovered  harbour.  His 
keen  eye  saw  the  charm  of  location,  overlooking  the 
Bay,  Mt.  Tamalpais,  and  the  Contra  Costa  —  the  coast 
across  —  in  Marin  County  and  over  the  Berkeley,  Oak- 
land and  Piedmont  Hills.  It  was  a  famous  location 
known  now  to  every  boy  and  girl  in  the  educated  world, 
and  early  became  the  city  of  their  dreams,  desire  and 
ambition. 

The  site  on  the  Rio  Carmelo  was  chosen  by  the  mas- 
ter-eye of  Serra.  He  saw  the  pastoral  beauty  of  the 
valley  and  its  richly-clad  hills,  its  towering  peaks,  and 
its  far-reaching  ocean  Point,  where  a  lighthouse  now 
guides  the  vessels  that  grope  through  the  fogs  that  often 
linger  off-shore.  Sunrises  and  sunsets  alike  bathed  the 
Mission  in  a  sea  of  glory,  enhanced  by  the  quiet  Bay 
beyond.  Santa  Cruz  also  had  a  beautiful  and  sightly 
location,  overlooking  the  Bay  of  Monterey,  and  the  site 
of  one  of  the  prosperous  resort  towns  of  the  Pacific 
Coast. 

For  varied  beauty  and  scenic  splendour  it  is  question- 


Franciscan  Missions  of  California        63 


able  whether  any  twenty-one  churches  in  any  country 
on  earth  can  vie  with  the  location  of  these  twenty-one 
Mission  structures.  They  are  saturated  with  Romance, 
and  bathe  for  ever  in  an  atmosphere  of  Beauty,  glory 
and  ineffable  charm. 

Of  the  architectural  beauty  of  the  Missions  a  whole 
volume  might  be  written.  Each  has  its  own  charm, 
some  less,  some  more.  From  the  standpoint  of  pure 
mission  style  that  of  San  Luis  Rey  is  the  most  perfect. 
Santa  Barbara  is  much  admired,  but  the  introduction 
of  the  Greek  pillars  in  the  fachada  destroys  its  purity. 
San  Diego  is  interesting  as  showing  the  first  evidence 
of  what  the  "  Mission  Style  "  was  to  be.  and  San  An- 
tonio de  Padua,  Santa  Ines,  San  Gabriel,  San  Francisco 
de  Assisi  all  have  their  individual  attractions.  On  this 
subject  I  have  written  more  fully  in  other  volumes.^ 

1  In  and  Out  of  the  Old  Missions,  with  142  illustrations,  392  pages,  and 
The  Old  Franciscan  Missions  of  California,  over  100  illustrations,  287  pages, 
and  two  other  volumes  now  in  preparation. 


CHAPTER    V 

CALIFORNIA,    THE    LAND    OF    PROPHECY 

"  Dared  I  but  say  a  prophecy, 
As  sang  the  holy  men  of  old, 
Of  rock-built  cities  yet  to  be 
Along  these  shining  shores  of  gold, 
Crowding  athirst  into  the  sea, 
What  wondrous  marvels  might  be  told! 
Enough,  to  know  that  Empire  here 
Shall  burn  her  loftiest,  brightest  star; 
Here  art  and  eloquence  shall  reign, 
As  o'er  the  wolf -rear 'd  realm  of  old; 
Here  learn'd  and  famous  from  afar, 
To  pay  their  noble  court,  shall  come, 
And  shall  not  seek  or  see  in  vain, 
But  look  and  look  with  wonder  dumb." 

Thus  sang  the  inspired  Poet  of  the  Sierras,  he  who 
forsook  the  crowded  cities  of  men  to  dwell  in  the  soli- 
tude of  his  Hights,  overlooking  Oakland  and  the  Bay 
and  City  of  San  Francisco,  in  order  that  there,  unin- 
terrupted or  undisturbed  by  man,  he  might  "  listen  to 
the  voice  of  God  "  and  tell  the  world  of  the  messages 
he  had  received. 

And  again,  in  even  loftier  strain,  he  lifted  up  his 
voice  and  sang: 

"  A  land  from  out  whose  depths  shall  rise 
The  new-time  prophets.    Yea,  the  land 
From  out  whose  awful  depths  shall  come, 
A  lowly  man,  with  dusty  feet, 
A  man  fresh  from  his  Maker's  hand, 
A  singer  singing  oversweet, 
A  charmer  charming  very  wise; 
And  then  all  men  shall  not  be  dumb, 
64 


California,  the  Land  of  Prophecy        65 

Nay,  not  be  dumb;   for  he  shall  say, 
'  Take  heed,  for  I  prepare  the  way 
For  weary  feet.'    Lo!  from  this  land 
Of  Jordan  streams  and  dead  sea  sand, 
The  Christ  shall  come  when  next  the  race 
Of  man  shall  look  upon  His  face." 

The  Ship  in  the  Desert. 

Still  once  again,  after  he  had  planted  with  his  own 
hands  ten  thousand  trees  upon  his  Hights  in  the  form 
of  a  cross,  and  tenderly  cared  for  and  watered  them 
in  summer  time  with  the  precious  fluid  which  he  per- 
sonally carried  from  the  spring  below,  replacing  those 
that  died  with  new  ones,  he  again  sang  in  forceful 
prophecy : 

"  Behold  my  Sierras!   there  singers  shall  throng; 
Their  white  brows  shall  break  through  the  wings  of  the  night 
As  the  fierce  condor  breaks  through  the  clouds  in  his  flight; 
And  I  here  plant  the  Cross  and  possess  them  with  song." 

What  a  truthful,  forceful  and  yet  poetic  and  symbolic 
line  is  that  last  line.  How  it  sets  before  the  imaginative 
eye  the  old  Spanish  explorers,  Cabrillo,  Vizcaino  and  the 
rest,  who,  when  they  first  reached  this  California  land, 
left  their  vessels,  clad  in  their  most  gorgeous  and  stately 
robes,  led  by  chanting  priests  carrying  aloft  the  Cross, 
the  emblem  of  the  Christian  religion.  Then,  amid 
salvos  of  musketry,  the  Cross  was  planted  erect,  ine 
Te  Deum  was  sung,  prayers  were  uttered  and  with 
pomp  and  ceremony,  eloquence  and  enthusiasm  the  new 
land  was  taken  possession  of  for  God  and  the  King  of 
Spain. 

Joaquin  planted  his  cross  of  living  trees,  as  he  told 
his  sweet  daughter,  Juanita :  "  I  planted  my  first  trees 
[on  the  Hights]  in  the  shape  of  a  cross,  to  teach  us  all 
to  look  up  to  the  cross,  to  never  fret  under  the  cross  we 


66       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


bear,  nor  to  forget  Him,  for  sorrow  has  its  place,"  and 
then  he  possessed  the  Sierras  not  for  any  king,  but  pos- 
sessed them  with  song  for  the  singers  that  his  prophetic 
vision  saw  were  to  come.     And  even  in  his  hfetime  his 
vision  began  to  be  true.     There  came  to  him.  attracted 
by  the  same  natural  power  that  had  so  influenced  his 
own  soul,  Edwin  Markham.  the  poet  whose  Man  ivith 
the    Hoc    aroused    the    thought    of    the    world;     Yone 
Noguchi,   now   Professor  of   English  Literature  in  the 
University  of  Japan;    Adelaide  Knapp,   whose   Upland 
Pastures  is  sweetest  breath  of  pure  poesy  in  prose  form ; 
Takeshi   Kanno,   another  Japanese,   whose  poetic  crea- 
tions abound   in  strong  conceptions  and   fine  lines,   as, 
"  Now,  invisible  hand  of  mighty  Creator  forges  human 
souls  on  the  anvil  of  passion,"  and  "  Her  life  was  music. 
She  dove  into  the  ocean  of  Death  like  a  white  sea-bird." 
Gertrude  Boyle  Kanno,  the  wife  of  Takeshi,  for  years 
has    also   made    here    in    clay    some    imperishable    jXDr- 
traits  of  poets,  artists  and  human  benefactors.     Not  far 
away  came  George  Sterling,  of  whose  imaginative  poetry- 
Ambrose  Bierce  wrote  that  it  had  never  been  equalled 
in   the   world's   literature    since    Dante ;     Mary   Austin, 
whose  Land  of  Little  Rain  is  one  of  the  classics  of  Amer- 
ican literature ;    Herman  Whitaker,  Frank  Norris,  Jack 
London,  Gertrude  Atherton,  and  a  host  of  others  whose 
literary  work  is  compelling-  the  attention  of  the  world. 
But  prophecy  came  from  the  lips  and  pens  of  others 
in  this  California  land  who  were  contemporaneous  with 
Joaquin.     Ina  Coolbrith  in  her  California  thus  sang: 


Lo!    I  have  waited  long! 
How  longer  yet  must  my  strung  harp  be  dumb, 

Ere  its  great  master  come? 
Till  the  fair  singer  comes  to  wake  the  strong, 
Rapt  chords  of  it  unto  the  new,  glad  song! 


k 


California,  the  Land  of  Prophecy        67 

Him  a  diviner  speech 

My  song-birds  wait  to  teach: 

The  secrets  of  the  field 

My  blossoms  will  not  jneld 

To  other  hands  than  his; 

And,  lingering  for  this, 
My  laurels  lend  the  glory  of  their  boughs 

To  crown  no  narrower  brows. 
For  on  his  lips  must  wisdom  sit  with  youth, 
And  in  his  eyes,  and  on  the  lids  thereof, 

The  light  of  a  great  love  — 

And  on  his  forehead,  Truth!   ... 

In  another  chapter  are  quoted  those  vivid  and  preg- 
nant prose  prophecies  of  Bayard  Taylor,  world-trav- 
eller, observer  and  philosopher.  But  not  content  with 
this,  he  put  them  into  ringing  verse.  After  speaking 
of  man's  hand  guiding  the  driving  plough  and  the  miner 
rifling  the  placers  he  continues : 

Yet  in  thy  lap,  thus  rudely  rent  and  torn, 

A  nobler  seed  shall  be; 
Mother  of  mighty  men,  thou  shalt  not  mourn 

Thy  lost  virginity! 

Thy  human  children  shall  restore  the  grace 

Gone  with  thy  fallen  pines; 
The  wild,  barbaric  beauty  of  thy  face 

Shall  round  to  classic  Hnes. 

And  Order,  Justice,  Social  Law  shall  curb 

Thy  untamed  energies; 
And  Art  and  Science,  with  their  dreams  superb. 

Replace  thine  ancient  ease. 

The  marble,  sleeping  in  thy  mountains  now, 

Shall  live  in  sculptures  rare; 
Thy  native  oak  shall  crown  the  sage's  brow,  — 

Thy  bay,  the  poet's  hair. 

Thy  tawny  hills  shall  bleed  their  purple  wine, 

Thy  valleys  yield  their  oil; 
And  Music,  with  her  eloquence  divine, 

Persuade  thy  sons  to  toil. 


68       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Till  Hesper,  as  he  trims  his  silver  beam, 

No  happier  land  shall  see, 
And  Earth  shall  find  her  old  Arcadian  dream 

Restored  again  in  thee! 

Even  De  Mofras,  the  French  visitor  to  Los  Angeles 
in  1842,  recorded  a  Spanish  woman's  prophecy  in  re- 
gard to  CaHfornia :  "  When  the  Frenchmen  come  the 
women  will  surrender;  when  the  Americans  come, 
good-bye  to  California!" 

Charles  Warren  Stoddard,  one  of  her  earliest  and 
sweetest  singers  thus  described  and  prophesied  for  the 
land  he  loved  so  well : 

Oh,  thou,  my  best  beloved!     My  pride,  my  boast, 
Stretching  thy  glorious  length  along  the  West; 

Within  the  girdle  of  thy  sunlit  coast. 

From  pine  to  palm,  from  palm  to  every  crest, 
All  fruits,  all  flowers,  all  cereals  are  blest. 

.  .  .  Dowered  with  the  clime  of  climes, 
At  thy  fair  feet  the  alien  heapeth  spoil; 

The  poet  chanteth  thee  in  praiseful  rhymes; 
He  sees  the  banner  of  thy  fate  uncoil  — 
A  thousand  cities  springing  from  thy  soil. 

Bom  of  young  hopes,  but  nurtured  in  the  brawn. 
Wrought  by  the  brave  and  tireless  hands  of  toil, 

To  house  a  nobler  race  when  we  are  gone  — 

A  race  prophetical,  that  bides  the  coming  dawn. 

A  later  voice  was  found  in  Charles  Keeler,  who  in  his 
Songs  of  El  Dorado  thus  sang  his  vision: 

There  is  an  earnest  in  this  westward  slope 
Of  high  achievements,  glorious  enterprise,  — 

A  mighty  stirring  of  expectant  hope; 
Still  on  beyond  the  El  Dorado  lies! 

Beauty  shall  here  hold  court  upon  the  heights 
And  men  shall  fashion  temples  for  her  shrine, 

With  chantings  high  of  praise  and  starward  flights 
Of  silver  chords  and  organ's  throb  divine. 


California,  the  Land  of  Prophecy        69 

The  sculptor  here  shall  hew  the  formless  stone 

To  shapes  of  beauty  dreamed  on  cloud-throned  crest; 

The  painter  shall  reveal  what  he  alone 

Saw  as  he  brooded  on  th'  earth-mother's  breast. 


Another  wonderful  nature  awakened  to  vocal  expres- 
sion by  the  glories  of  this  western  land  is  Miss  Sharlot 
M.  Hall.  At  times  almost  imprisoned  by  physical  dis- 
abilities, silie  has  yet  felt  the  lure  so  strongly  that  she 
has  wandered  where  many  a  strong  man  might  hesitate 
to  follow.  And  she  has  written  mightily  and  gloriously 
of  her  loved  land.  Read  this,  and  feel  how  California 
and  the  Great  West  it  stands  for  has  aroused  her  in- 
most being: 


When  the  world  of  waters  was  parted  by  the  stroke  of  a  mighty  rod, 
Her  eyes  were  first  of  the  lands  of  earth  to  look  on  the  face  of  God; 
The  white  mists  robed  and  throned  her,  and  the  sun  in  his  orbit  wide 
Bent  down  from  his  ultimate  pathway  and  claimed  her  his  chosen  bride; 
And  He  that  had  formed  and  dowered  her  with  the  dower  of  a  royal  queen, 
Decreed  her  the  strength  of  mighty  hills,  the  peace  of  the  plains  between; 
The  silence  of  utmost  desert,  and  canyons  rifted  and  riven, 
And  the  music  of  wide-flung  forests  where  strong  winds  shout  to  heaven. 

Then  high  and  apart  He  set  her,  and  bade  the  grey  seas  guard, 

And  the  lean  sands  clutching  her  garment's  hem  keep  stern  and  solemn  ward. 

What  dreams  she  knew  as  she  waited!  What  strange  keels  touched  her 
shore! 

And  feet  went  into  the  stillness,  and  returned  to  the  sea  no  more. 

They  passed  through  her  dreams  like  shadows  —  till  she  woke  one  preg- 
nant morn, 

And  watched  Magellan's  white-winged  ships  swing  round  the  ice-bound 
Horn; 

She  thrilled  to  their  masterful  presage,  those  dauntless  sails  from  afar, 

And  laughed  as  she  leaned  to  the  ocean  till  her  face  shone  out  like  a  star. 

And  men  who  toiled  in  the  drudging  hives  of  a  world  as  flat  as  a  floor 
Thrilled  in  their  souls  to  her  laughter,  and  turned  with  hand  to  the  door; 
And  creeds  as  hoary  as  Adam,  and  feuds  as  old  as  Cain, 
Fell  deaf  on  the  ear  that  barkened  and  caught  that  far  refrain: 


70       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Into  dungeons  by  light  forgotten,  and  prisons  of  grim  despair, 
Hope  came  with  the  pale  reflection  of  her  star  on  the  swooning  air; 
And  the  old  hedged,  human  whirlpool,  with  its  seething  misery, 
Burst  through  —  as  a  pent-up  river  breaks  through  to  the  healing  sea. 

Calling  —  calling  —  calling  —  resistless,  imperative,  strong  — 

Soldier,  and  priest,  and  dreamer  —  she  drew  them,  a  mighty  throng. 

The  unmapped  seas  took  tribute  of  many  a  dauntless  band, 

And  many  a  brave  hope  measured  but  bleaching  bones  in  the  sand; 

Yet  for  one  that  fell,  a  hundred  sprang  out  to  fill  his  place, 

For  death  at  her  call  was  sweeter  than  life  in  a  tamer  race. 

Sinew  and  bone  she  drew  them;  steel-thewed  — r  and  the  weaklings  shrank  — 

Grim-wrought  of  granite  and  iron  were  the  men  of  her  foremost  rank. 

The  wanderers  of  earth  turned  to  her  —  outcast  of  the  older  lands  — 
With  a  promise  and  hope  in  their  pleading,  and  she  reached  them  pitying 

hands; 
And  she  cried  to  the  Old- World  cities  that  drowse  by  the  Eastern  main; 
"  Send  me  your  weary,  house-worn  broods  and  I'll  send  you  Men  againi 
Lo,  here  in  my  wind-swept  reaches,  by  my  marshalled  peaks  of  snow, 
Is  room  for  a  larger  reaping  than  your  o'er-tilled  fields  can  grow; 
Seed  of  the  Man-Seed  springing  to  stature  and  strength  in  my  sun, 
Free  with  a  limitless  freedom  no  battles  of  men  have  won." 

Undoubtedly  the  first  great  California  prophet  was 
that  glorious  and  now  glorified  Franciscan,  Father  Juni- 
pero  Serra.  When  he  was  commanded  to  go  forth  to 
the  spiritual  conquest  of  Alta  California,  I  doubt  not 
he  threw  himself  prostrate  before  the  Lord,  and  with 
fasting  and  prayer  pleaded  to  be  made  worthy  his  high 
calling.  As  soon  as  he  gazed  upon  the  extensive  ran- 
chcrias  of  San  Diego,  of  Gauchama,  —  the  Vale  of 
Plenty  near  San  Bernardino,  —  of  the  Santa  Barbara 
region,  of  the  valley  now  San  Luis  Obispo,  of  the  Sali- 
nas and  the  mountains  near  by,  of  the  Bays  of  Monterey 
and  San  Francisco,  how  his  heart  yearned  towards  these 
heathen,  and  how  his  vivid  and  confident  vision  saw 
the  grace  of  God  at  work  in  its  divine  and  illimitable 
fashion.      Serra  thought  not  of  worldly  prosperity,  he 


California,  the  Land  of  Prophecy        71 

cared  nothing  for  "  material  progress,"  for  accumulated 
fortunes,  for  great  cities.  His  was  a  limited  vision,  but 
a  grand  and  blessed  one.  He  saw  these  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  Gentiles  redeemed  by  the  salvation  of  Christ 
and  the  saving  ordinances  of  the  church. 

And  then,  practical  idealist,  he  worked  day  and  night 
to  bring  his  vision  to  reality.  Up  and  down  the  land 
he  trod  in  tireless  ardour;  in  sunshine  and  rain  he 
prayed  with  and  for  his  dusky  charges;  like  an  eagle 
mother  caring  for  her  eaglets  he  watched  over  his  flock 
and  fought,  with  teeth  and  talons,  fist  and  tongue,  even 
to  principalities  and  powers,  governors  and  viceroys  who 
stood  in  the  way  of  his  vision's  realization,  and  when 
at  last  he  laid  down  his  precious  burden  and  his  dying- 
eyes  closed  upon  the  things  of  earth,  he  could  still  see 
the  nine  Missions  he  had  been  allowed  to  establish,  he 
could  hear  the  voices  of  the  nearly  six  thousand  con- 
verted Indians  (almost  every  one  of  whom  his  hands 
had  blessed  in  the  sacred  rite  of  Confirmation)  chant- 
ing the  holy  songs  of  Zion,  he  could  hear  the  looms 
and  machines,  the  busy  hum  of  thousands  at  labour,  at 
recitation,  at  even-song  or  matins,  he  could  see  the  Mis- 
sion flocks  and  herds,  the  scores  of  acres  of  vineyard, 
orchard  and  garden,  and  the  thousands  of  acres  of  grain, 
and  above  all  he  could  see  the  New  Jerusalem,  where 
had  gone  the  immortal  souls  that  he  felt  were  saved 
through  the  faithful  preaching  and  teaching  /of  tlie 
Word  by  himself  and  his  well-beloved  co-labourers. 

Blessed  vision !  blessed  Serra  I  Prophet  and  worker, 
visionary  and  realist  in  one.  God  was  good  to  thee  and 
our  hearts  rejoice  in  thy  satisfaction. 

The  Missions  a  failure?  The  work  of  the  padres 
brought  to  naught?     Their  labours  vain? 

Nay,  say  not  so!     That  man  who  so  speaks  or  writes 


72       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

never  had  his  heart  fired  with  prophet's  vision,  or  flamed 
with  a  spark  from  the  Divine  altar.  The  Missions  must 
never  be  judged  by  standards  of  material  success.  The 
flocks  and  herds  of  the  Missions  might  disappear,  the 
orchards  and  gardens  be  allowed  to  become  unkempt 
and  overgrown  with  weeds,  even  the  sacred  buildings  of 
the  Missions  allowed  to  fall  into  ruin  and  hopeless  decay, 
and  the  Indians  themselves  dispersed  and  destroyed, 
yet  the  efforts  of  the  padres  were  not  in  vain.  Souls 
and  souls  alone  were  the  merchandise  for  which  they 
bargained,  toiled  and  slaved.  Their  ever  present  watch- 
word was  the  cry  of  ONE  who  spake  as  never  man 
spake,  as  one  having  authority :  "  What  shall  it  profit 
a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own 
soul  ?  "  The  souls  of  countless  thousands  were  saved, 
—  according  to  the  belief  of  Serra  and  his  fellow-work- 
ers. The  Missions  were  but  means  to  this  end,  and 
though  in  the  latter  years  of  the  dark  times  of  seculari- 
zation and  of  the  hell-sweeping  influence  of  the  morally 
corrupt,  drink-cursed  portion  of  the  white  race,  it  seemed 
as  if  they  were  erected  for  naught,  we  know,  whatever 
may  be  our  religious  faith  or  no  faith,  the  influences  of 
the  padres,  even  though  only  in  memories,  were  always 
of  good,  were  always  God-wards,  and  thus,  so  long  as 
an  Indian's  life  persisted,  even  though  it  was  debauched 
and  defiled  with  the  filth  and  mire  of  the  "  civilized  " 
race's  vices,  it  retained  glimpses  of  the  Divine  which 
we  firmly  believe  resulted  in  its  ultimate  reception  into 
the  land  of  the  blest. 

Then,  too,  shall  we  forget  in  this  connection,  the 
glorious  example  of  Serra  and  his  devoted  brothers  of 
the  Order  of  Friars  Minor,  their  unselfish  devotion  to 
a  spiritual  end,  their  tireless  labours,  their  abnegation, 
their  total  renunciation  of  all  most  men  hold  dear.     Is 


California,  the  Land  of  Prophecy        73 

such  an  example  as  this  nothing,  in  an  age  when  most 
men  deem  material  success  of  highest  importance?  And 
is  the  architecture  they  becjueathed  to  us,  and  which  is 
now  stimulating  to  highest  endeavour  some  of  our  great- 
est creative  minds,  an  evidence  of  failure?  Every  Mis- 
sion-influenced church,  hospital,  railway-depot,  school- 
house,  library,  private  home  is  a  tribute,  unconscious  it 
may  be,  to  the  triumphant  labours  of  the  padres.  Their 
vision  extended  far.  It  saw  the  Christianization  and 
civilization  of  a  whole  people.  But  we  realize  that  it 
has  extended  far  beyond  the  highest  conception  and 
imagination  of  its  original  seer  and  in  lines  not  contem- 
plated by  him.  but  which  mean  comfort,  happiness,  in- 
spiration and  blessing  to  a  new  race  which  inherits  the 
land. 

Joaquin  Miller  sang  not  only  his  songs  of  prophecy 
of  this  fair  land,  but  he  also  sang  sweetly  and  surely  of 
his  faith  in  it.  Sang  a  faith  that  itself  was  a  prophecy 
of  what  man  should  here  find.  And  in  this  I  believe  he 
sang  better  than  he  knew : 


Nay,  turn  not  to  the  past  for  light; 
Nay,  teach  not  Pagan  tale  forsooth 
Behind  lie  heathen  gods  and  night, 
Before  lift  high,  white  light  and  truth. 
Sweet  Orpheus  looked  back,  and  lo, 
Hell  met  his  eyes  and  endless  woe! 
Lot's  wife  looked  back,  and  for  this  fell 
To  something  even  worse  than  hell. 
Let  us  have  faith,  sail,  seek  and  find 
The  new  world  and  the  new  world's  ways: 
Blind  Homer  led  the  blind! 

Come,  let  us  kindle  faith  in  light! 
Yon  eagle  climbing  to  the  sun 
Keeps  not  the  straightest  course  in  sight, 
But  room  and  reach  of  wing  and  run 


74       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Of  rounding  circle  all  are  his, 

Till  he  at  last  bathes  in  the  light 

Of  worlds  that  look  far  down  on  this 

Arena's  battle  for  the  right. 

The  stoutest  sail  that  braves  the  breeze, 

The  bravest  battle-ship  that  rides. 

Rides  rounding  up  the  seas. 

Come,  let  us  kindle  faith  in  man! 
What  though  yon  eagle,  where  he  swings, 
May  moult  a  feather  in  God's  plan 
Of  broader,  stronger,  better  wings! 
Why,  let  the  moulted  feathers  lie 
As  thick  as  leaves  upon  the  lawn : 
These  be  but  proof  we  cleave  the  sky 
And  still  round  on  and  on  and  on. 
Fear  not  for  moulting  feathers;   nay, 
But  rather  fear  when  all  seems  fair. 
And  care  is  far  away. 

Come,  let  us  kindle  faith  in  God! 
He  made,  He  kept.  He  still  can  keep. 
The  storm  obeys  His  burning  rod. 
The  storm  brought  Christ  to  walk  the  deep. 
Trust  God  to  round  His  own  at  will; 
Trust  God  to  keep  His  own  for  aye  — 
Or  strife  or  strike,  or  well  or  ill; 
An  eagle  climbing  up  the  sky  — 
A  meteor  down  from  heaven  hurled  — 
Trust  God  to  round,  reform,  or  rock 
His  new-bom  baby  world. 

Of  certain  of  its  cities  the  prophet's  voice  has  spoken 
in  no  uncertain  terms.  Who  of  Saxon  blood  could 
gaze  upon  San  Francisco  and  not  fully  understand 
[  Bayard  Taylor's  vision :  "  The  view  of  San  Francisco, 
from  either  Rincon  or  Telegraph  Hill,  surpasses  —  I 
say  it  boldly  —  that  of  any  other  American  city.  It  has 
the  noblest  natural  surroundings,  and  will,  in  the  course 
of  time,  become  the  rival  of  Genoa,  or  Naples,  or  even 
Constantinople."     This  prophecy  has  become  ti-ue. 


California,  the  Land  of  Prophecy        75 

f       Bret  Harte's 

Thou  drawcst  all  things,  small  or  great, 
To  thee,  beside  the  western  gate. 

Ina  Coolbrith's  forceful  words,  written  while  her  heart 
was  torn  at  the  sight  of  the  city  of  her  love  and  her 
desire  in  the  ashes  of  the  lire  of  1906,  have  already  be- 
come realized : 

Thou  wilt  arise  invincible,  supreme! 

The  earth  to  voice  thy  glory  never  tire. 
And  song,  unborn,  shall  chant  no  nobler  theme, 

Proud  city  of  my  love  and  my  desire. 

Howard  V.  Sutherland  felt  the  same  prophetic  impulse 
when  he  said  of  San  Francisco : 

One  whose  voice  shall  sound 
In  days  to  come  life's  truth  the  world  around 

And  wake  earth's  leaders  from  their  gold-drugged  rest. 

But  I  am  compelled  to  pause  here.  The  theme  is  but 
presented  in  suggestive  skeleton.  Variations  upon  it  by 
a  score,  a  hundred  poets  could  be  reproduced,  but  these 
must  suffice.  The  best  prophecies  for  the  future  are 
the  unrivalled  achievements  of  the  past.  They  speak 
of  what  a  few  generations  hence  shall  see. 


CHAPTER    VI 

ON    THE    HEIGHTS 

When  Gertrude  Atherton,  easily  the  most  famous  of 
»  America's  living  women  writers  of  fiction,  was  asked 
what  book  she  was  fondest  of  and  read  oftenest,  she 
immediately  replied  to  the  effect  that  she  knew  of  but 
one  book  that  was  good  enough  to  demand  of  her  a 
rereading  every  year,  and  that  was  Clarence  King's 
f  Mountaineering  in  California.  Every  one  who  really 
knows  the  book  ranks  it  as  a  classic.  In  the  same  cate- 
gory must  be  placed  John  Muir's  Mountains  of  Cali- 
fornia, My  First  Summer  in  the  Sierras,  and  The  Yo- 
seniite  Valley;  and  J.  Smeaton  Chase's  Yoscmite  Trails 
runs  these  very  closely.  Thousands  —  literally  thou- 
sands —  of  magazine  and  newspaper  articles  of  supe- 
rior merit  have  been  inspired  by  these  mountains,  and 
David  Starr  Jordan  in  his  Alps  of  the  King-Kern  Di- 
vide partially  explains  why.  He  says:  "The  High 
f  Sierras,  the  huge  crests  at  the  head  of  the  King's,  Kern, 
Kaweah,  and  San  Joaquin  Rivers,  are  Alps  indeed,  not 
lower  than  the  grandest  of  those  in  Europe,  and  scarcelv 
inferior  in  magnificence.  The  number  of  peaks  in  this 
region  which  pass  the  limit  of  13,000  feet  is  not  less 
than  in  all  Switzerland."  He  then  continues  to  expa- 
tiate on  the  points  of  difference  between  the  Alps  and 
the  Sierras  in  such  fashion  as  the  following :  "  We  find 
in  the  mountains  of  Switzerland  greater  variety  of  form, 
and  of  rock  formation,  and  with  greater  picturesqueness 

76 


On  the  Heights  77 

in  colour,  the  white  of  the  snow  being  sharply  contrasted 
with  the  green  of  the  flower-carpeted  pastures.  .  .  .  The 
Sierras  are  richer  in  colour,  and  they  throb  with  life. 
The  dry  air  that  flows  over  them  is  stimulating,  balsam- 
laden,  and  always  transparent  to  the  vision.  The  Alps 
are  almost  always  bathed  or  sw^athed  in  clouds.  Their 
air  is  clear  only  when  it  has  been  newly  washed  by  some 
wild  storm.  .  .  . 

"  The  glacial  basins  of  the  High  Sierras,  huge  tracts 
of  polished  granite,  furrowed  by  streams  and  fringed 
with  mountain  vegetation  are  far  more  impressive  than 
similar  regions  in  the  Alps.  In  the  Alps  the  glaciers 
are  still  alive  and  at  work.  In  the  Sierras,  a  few  little 
ones  are  left  here  and  there,  high  on  the  flanks  of  preci- 
pices, but  the  valleys  below  them,  once  filled  with  ice, 
are  now  bare,  slickened  and  sharp-backed  or  clogged  with 
moraines,  just  as  the  glaciers  left  them.  The  wreck 
of  the  vanished  glacier,  as  in  Ouzel  Basin  of  Mt.  Brewer, 
and  Desolation  Valley  of  Pyramid  Peak,  may  tell  us 
more  of  what  a  glacier  does  than  a  living  glacier  it- 
self. .  .   . 

"  The  forests  of  the  Sierras  are  beyond  comparison 
nobler  than  those  of  the  Alps.  The  pine,  fir,  and  la-rch 
woods  of  Switzerland  are  only  second  growth,  mere 
brush,  by  the  side  of  the  huge  pines  of  the  flanks  of  the 
Sierras.  Giant  firs  and  spruces,  too,  rival  the  largest 
trees  of  earth,  while  above  all,  supremely  preeminent 
over  all  other  vegetation,  towers  the  giant  Sequoia, 
mightiest  of  trees." 

Two  other  points  of  superiority  Dr.  Jordan  thus 
states :  "  So  far  as  man  is  concerned,  there  are  great 
differences  between  the  Sierras  and  the  Alps.  The  Alps 
have  good  roads,  trails,  hotels  everywhere.  They  are 
thoroughly  civilized,  provided  with  guides,  guide-posts. 


78       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ropes  and  railings,  and  the  traveller,  whatever  else  he 
may  do,  cannot  go  astray.  If  he  gets  lost  he  has  plenty 
of  company.  The  Sierras  are  uninhabited.  In  their 
high  reaches  there  is  no  hotel,  and  not  often  a  shed  or 
a  roof  of  any  kind.  The  trails  are  rough,  and  when 
one  climbs  out  from  the  canyons  he  has  only  to  go  as 
he  pleases.  But  wherever  he  goes  he  cannot  fail  to  be 
pleased.  The  Sierras  are  far  more  hospitable  than  the 
Alps,  and  the  danger  of  accident  is  far  less.  Every  day 
in  the  Alps  may  be  a  day  of  storm,  and  no  one  can 
safely  sleep  in  the  open  air.  In  the  Sierras  there  are 
but  two  or  three  rainy  days  in  the  summer,  and  these 
are  thunder-showers  in  August  afternoons.  The  weather 
is  scarcely  a  factor  to  be  considered;  every  day  is  a 
good  day,  one  or  two  perhaps  a  little  better. 

"  The  traveller  is  sure  of  dry,  clear  air,  a  little  brisk 
and  frosty  in  the  morning,  making  a  blanket  welcome, 
but  all  he  needs  is  a  blanket.  For  luxury  he  will  make 
a  bonfire  of  dry  branches  —  pine,  cedar,  cottonwood,  all 
burn  alike  —  and  there  is  always  a  dead  tree  ready  to 
his  hand.  He  will  build  his  fire  near  the  brook  that 
he  may  put  out  its  smouldering  embers  in  the  morning. 
No  matter  how  high  his  flame  may  rise  in  the  evening, 
with  morning  only  embers  are  left.  .   .  . 

"  In  the  High  Sierras,  the  form  of  the  mountains 
favours  the  climber.  Each  peak  is  part  of  a  great  anti- 
clinal fold,  broken  and  precipitous  on  the  east  side, 
retaining  the  original  slope  on  the  west.  Most  of  the 
mountains  about  Mt.  Whitney  share  the  form  of  that 
mountain.  A  gentle  slope  on  the  west  side,  covered 
by  broken,  frost-bitten  rocks ;  on  the  east  side  a  per- 
pendicular descent  to  an  abyss.  On  the  east  and  north 
almost  every  peak  is  vertical  and  inaccessible,  while  the 
west  side  offers  no  difficulty.     Only  time  and  patience 


On  the  Heights 79 

are  demanded  to  creep  upward  over  the  broken  stones 
and  climb  the  highest  of  them.  All  of  them  require 
endurance,  for  they  are  very  high,  but  few  of  them 
demand  any  special  skill  or  any  nervous  strain,  and  the 
views  the  summits  yield  are  most  repaying." 

Here,  then,  is  the  dictum  of  an  experienced  European 
mountain  climber,  one  who  has  scaled  Mt.  Blanc,  the 
Matterhorn  and  other  Alpine  summits.  Yet  he  speaks 
with  enthusiasm  of  the  superiority,  in  many  respects, 
of  the  Sierras.  They  are  richer  in  colour,  they  throb 
with  life,  their  atmosphere  is  clearer,  freer  from  storms, 
their  glacial  basins  are  more  impressive,  more  educative, 
the  forests  are  beyond  comparison,  the  Sierras  are  less 
civilized  but  more  hospitable,  and  the  form  of  the  moun- 
tains favours  the  climber.  All  these  assertions  every 
one  who  has  climbed  both  the  Alps  and  the  Sierras  can 
positively  confirm.  Hence  no  American  mountain 
climber  need  wander  over  to  Europe,  —  or  elsewhere  for 
that  matter,  —  until  he  has  first  tested  his  mettle  in 
triumphing  over  the  peaks  of  the  Sierras.  He  will  find 
here  more  than  a  hundred  peaks  over  ten  thousand  feet 
high,  and  possibly  one-fifth  of  these  are  over  fourteen 
thousand  feet  in  the  blue. 

That  there  is  romance  in  climbing  them,  as  well  as 
beauty,  is  easily  to  be  discovered  in  reading  the  books 
mentioned,  but  he  who  can  climb  personally  and  is  con- 
tent with  the  reading  of  books  about  climbing  is  a  poor 
apology  for  a  man.  From  end  to  end  California  bristles 
with  peaks,  calling  upon  men  to  strenuous  and  trium- 
phant exertion.  At  Hotel  del  Coronado,  Mt.  San  Mi- 
guel, the  Cuyamaca  peaks,  Lyon,  Volcan,  Palomar,  all 
invite  to  the  delightful  effort  of  scaling  their  heights. 
Cuyamaca  is  about  6.500  feet  above  the  sea  and  affords 
one  of  the  most  varied  outlooks  offered  by  any  moun- 


80       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

tain  of  the  region.  The  pearly  faced  Pacific  hes  like 
a  smooth  sea  of  glass,  a  divine  mirror  for  the  heavenly 
beings  to  gaze  in,  on  the  west,  while  close  at  one's  feet 
yawn  vast  chasms  thousands  of  feet  deep,  broken  up 
by  ridge  after  ridge,  all  clothed  wuth  chaparral,  pre- 
paring the  eye  for  the  more  triumphant  note  of  the 
forests  that  surround  the  mountain  in  every  direction. 
To  the  east  is  another  sea,  —  a  gray  sea,  a  tawny  sea 
of  desert  sand,  glimmering  and  shimmering  in  the  sun, 
but  now  relieved  by  a  great  eye  of  pale  green  water,  — 
the  wonderful  Salton  Sea,  that  has  invaded  and  held 
for  over  a  decade,  the  basin  of  the  desert.  Between  us 
and  the  desert  lie  ridge  after  ridge  of  green,  blue  and 
gray  mountains,  —  green  with  rich  verdure,  blue  with 
atmospheric  haze,  gray  with  naked  rocks,  while  to  the 
north,  some  eighty  to  a  hundred  miles  away,  tower  up 
gigantic  San  Gorgonio,  San  Bernardino,  and  the  lengthy 
ridge  of  San  Jacinto,  all  with  snowy  crowns  glittering 
in  the  morning  sun. 

Nearer  to  us  are  the  Palomar  Mountains,  almost  as 
high  as  Cuyamaca,  forest  clad  on  their  heights,  grassy 
and  brown  on  the  lower  slopes,  and  with  timber-filled 
gulches  and  ravines  between  them.  Away  off  in  the 
south,  stretching  into  Mexico,  are  more  mountains,  with 
miles  and  miles  of  broad  plains  and  valleys  between, 
where  golden  grain,  deep  green  lemon,  orange,  olive 
and  almond  orchards  speak  of  peace  and  prosperity. 

I  spoke  of  exertion  in  climbing  these  mountains. 
Time  was  when  there  was  no  other  way.  One  made 
the  ascent  partially  on  horseback,  perhaps,  but  gener- 
ally over  rugged  trails  on  foot.  But  Time  is  a  great 
civilizer  and  produces  wonderful  changes,  and  the  in- 
coming of  the  automobile  has  made  such  tremendous 
inroads   into    our    former   wilds   as   almost   to    destroy 


On  the  Heights  81 

preexistent  conditions.  For  instance,  in  my  diary  for  a 
certain  day  in  February,  1914,  I  find  the  following  entry : 

"  This  morning  started  out  from  San  Diego  with  the 
Preacher's  Chib  of  the  city.  We  motored  out  about 
sixty  or  seventy  miles,  most  of  us  riding  without  over- 
coats. After  kmch  and  an  address  under  the  trees,  some 
of  us  desired  to  go  further,  so  we  rolled  on  up  hill  and 
down  dale,  securing  a  joyous  experience  in  the  varied 
scenery  presented  —  fertile,  cultivated  valleys,  smiling 
in  the  richness  of  their  new  verdure;  rugged  mountain 
slopes  equally  smiling  in  their  wild  and  beautiful  chap- 
arral; frowning  mountain  heights,  where  rude  and 
jagged  rocks  forbade  any  but  the  most  hardy  of  arboreal 
life  to  find  place,  everything  radiating  tints  and  tones 
of  colour  that  ravished  the  eye.  We  climbed  up  the 
Cuyamaca  grade  to  within  a  few  hundred  feet  of  the 
summit,  passing  through  groves  of  trees,  and,  on  the 
north  and  shady  sides  of  the  mountain,  finding  patches 
of  snow.  Several  of  my  companions  cried  out  in  de- 
light at  this,  and  wished  the  machine  to  stop  that  they 
might  dabble  their  hands  in  it  —  as  one  had  not  touched 
snow  for  five  years,  since  he  left  Minnesota,  another 
seven,  since  he  was  in  New  England,  another,  four,  in 
Wisconsin,  etc.  Then,  remarkable  and  thrilling  con- 
trast, within  ten  minutes,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
grade,  we  gazed  into  the  heart  of  the  Colorado  Desert, 
saw  the  gorgeously  glowing  Chuckawalla  Mountains, 
and  nestling  at  their  feet  and  filling  up  the  Salton  Basin 
was  the  pale  greenish-blue  expanse  of  the  mysterious 
Salton  Sea." 

Redlands,  Riverside.  San  Bernardino  and  Colton  have 
a  galaxy  of  glorious  mountains  surrounding  them  all 
calling  for  climbers.  And  these  are  not  mere  foothills, 
as  many  so-called  mountains  are.     San  Gorgonio,   San 


82       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Bernardino  and  San  Jacinto  are  respectively  11,725, 
11.025,  and  10,805  feet  above  sea-level,  and  not  far  away 
are  the  Cucamonga  peaks  and  San  Antonio,  very  little 
inferior.  All  may  be  reached  now  on  horseback,  and 
San  Antonio  is  so  near  to  Los  Angeles  and  Pasadena, 
and  there  are  so  many  "  camps  "  in  the  canyons  beneath, 
that  scores  of  men  and  women  annually  make  the  ascent, 
leaving  their  homes  in  the  morning  on  the  electric  cars, 
and  after  lunching  on  the  summit  return  before  night- 
fall. 

Another  lesser  peak,  Mt.  Santiago,  looms  up  over  the 
Santa  Ana  region.  This  is  the  Banner  Mountain  of 
the  Sierra  Santa  Ana,  for  it  is  so  near  to  the  ocean  that 
the  fog  often  becomes  entangled  in  its  rocky  masses 
and  trails  off  into  streamers  and  banners  that  exquisitely 
reflect  the  morning  or  evening  sun. 

San  Buenaventura  has  its  Topatopa,  a  rocky  summit 
reached  after  a  steep  and  genuine  climb  up  the  Sespe,  or 
the  Ojai,  and  Santa  Barbara,  its  several  peaks  up  the 
rugged  Santa  Ines  (generally,  but  incorrectly  spelled 
Santa  Ynez).  It  was  over  this  range  that  Fremont  came 
in  December,  1846,  on  the  way  to  Los  Angeles,  near 
which,  at  Cahuenga,  the  capitulation  of  the  Californians 
was  signed  January  13,  1847.  He  thus  describes  his 
experiences :  "  On  Christmas  Eve  we  encamped  on  the 
ridge  of  Santa  Ines  behind  Santa  Barbara.  The  morning 
of  Christmas  broke  in  the  darkness  of  a  southeasterly 
storm  with  torrents  of  cold  rain,  which  swept  the  rocky 
face  of  the  precipitous  mountain  down  which  we  de- 
scended to  the  plain.  All  traces  of  trails  were  washed 
away  by  the  deluge  of  water,  and  pack-animals  slid  over 
the  rocks  and  fell  down  the  precipices,  blinded  by  the 
driving  rain.  In  the  descent  over  a  hundred  horses  were 
lost.     At  night  we  halted  in  the  timber  at  the  foot  of 


On  the  Heights  83 

the  mountain,  the  artillery  and  baggage  strewed  along 
our  track,  as  on  the  trail  of  a  defeated  army." 

Beyond  Santa  Barbara,  near  San  Luis  Obispo,  are 
the  peaks  and  ridges  of  the  Santa  Lucia  Mountains, 
Santa  Lucia  Peak,  5,967  feet,  being  the  highest  in  the 
Coast  Range.  In  the  Salinas  Valley  is  Gabilan  Peak, 
about  3,000  feet  high,  upon  which  Fremont  and  his  men 
camped  and  defied  General  Castro  of  the  Mexican  forces, 
when  the  latter  bid  him  leave  the  country. 

San  Jose  has  its  Mt.  Llamilton  —  reached,  however, 
by  well  built  automobile  road,  though  I  climbed  to  its 
summit  many  years  ago  over  cow  trails  or  worse ;  and 
all  around  the  Santa  Clara  Valley  there  are  interesting 
climbs  of  a  few  thousand  feet. 

Mt.  Tamalpais,  north  of  San  Francisco,  has  its  own 
railway,  and  Mt.  Diablo,  from  which  the  base  line  of 
this  meridian  is  run,  is  an  easy  climb  on  foot  or  horse- 
back. 

Mt.  St.  Helena,  made  famous  by  Robert  Louis  Ste- 
venson as  the  place  of  his  honeymoon,  and  the  scene  of 
The  Silverado  Squatters,  overlooks  the  exquisitely  cul- 
tured vineyard-valley  of  Napa,  and  the  wild  and  tum- 
bled region  to  the  north  leading  into  Lake  County. 
There  is  a  good  horse  trail  to  the  summit,  and  scores  go 
up  to  see  the  Stevenson  Monument. 

All  the  way  to  the  Oregon  line  there  are  peaks  and 
ridges  well  worth  climbing,  though  in  actual  altitude 
they  are  so  insignificant  compared  with  the  peaks  of 
the  Sierras  that  they  are  not  regarded  generally  in  the 
mountain  category. 

Crossing  over  eastwards  the  Siskiyous  afford  several 
good  climbs,  and  then  Mt.  Shasta  looms  up,  white  and 
serene,  the  dominating  mountain  of  all  northern  Cali- 
fornia.    This  is  so  sublime  a  peak  and  so  wonderfully 


84       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

romantic  in  its  history  and  associations  that  a  special 
chapter  is  devoted  to  it. 

All  the  way  down  the  Sacramento  Valley  the  Sierras 
call  to  the  intrepid  climber.  A  score  of  trails,  more  or 
less  rough  and  rugged,  lead  to  as  many  salient  peaks,  and 
one  can  spend  ten  summer  vacations  and  not  exhaust 
all  that  this  portion  of  the  Sierras  afford.  The  same 
ma)^  be  said  of  the  peaks  reached  from  the  San  Joaquin 
Valley. 

Almost  midway  between  the  two  lies  Lake  Tahoe 
with  its  mountain  environment,  the  chief  resort  region 
of  the  Sierras,  —  after  the  Yosemite  Valley,  —  and  each 
of  these  is  of  such  interest  and  importance  as  to  demand 
a  separate  chapter. 

The  Kings  and  Kern  River  Divide  of  the  Sierras  and 
the  Mt.  Whitney  region  are  growingly  accessible,  and 
each  is  a  paradise  for  the  mountain  climber.  There  is 
no  more  thrilling  and  fascinating  story  of  American 
mountain  climbing  than  Clarence  King's  account  of  his 
ascent  and  descent  of  Mt.  Tyndall.  He  and  his  com- 
panion, Cotter,  had  five  glorious  days  —  days  that 
quicken  one's  pulse  and  stimulate  one's  brain  merely  to 
read  about,  so  what  must  they  have  been  to  experience  ? 
Take  the  last  long  paragraph : 

"  The  wall  of  our  mountain  sank  abruptly  to  the  left, 
opening  for  the  first  time  an  outlook  to  the  eastward. 
Deep  —  it  seemed  almost  vertical  —  beneath  us  we 
could  see  the  blue  water  of  Owen's  Lake,  ten  thousand 
feet  down.  The  summit  peaks  to  the  north  were  piled 
in  titanic  confusion,  their  ridges  overhanging  the  eastern 
slope  with  terrible  abruptness.  Clustered  upon  the 
shelves  and  plateaus  below  were  several  frozen  lakes, 
and  in  all  directions  swept  magnificent  fields  of  snow. 
The  summit  was  nov/  not  over  five  hundred  feet  distant, 


On  the  Heights  85 

and  we  started  on  again  with  the  exhilarating  hope  of 
success.  But  if  Nature  had  intended  to  secure  the  sum- 
mit from  assailants,  she  could  not  have  planned  her 
defences  better ;  for  the  smooth  granite  wall  which  rose 
above  the  snow-slope  continued,  apparently,  quite  round 
the  peak,  and  we  looked  in  great  anxiety  to  see  if  there 
was  not  one  place  where  it  might  be  climbed.  It  was 
all  blank  except  in  one  place;  quite  near  us  the  snow 
bridged  across  the  crevice,  and  rose  in  a  long  point  to 
the  simimit  of  the  wall,  —  a  great  icicle-column  frozen 
in  a  niche  of  the  blufif,  —  its  base  about  ten  feet  wide, 
narrowing  to  two  feet  at  the  top.  We  climbed  to  the 
base  of  this  spire  of  ice,  and,  with  the  utmost  care,  began 
to  cut  our  stairwa3^  The  material  was  an  exceedingly 
compacted  snow,  passing  into  clear  ice  as  it  neared  the 
rock.  We  climbed  the  first  half  of  it  with  comparative 
ease;  after  that  it  was  almost  vertical,  and  so  thin  that 
we  did  not  dare  to  cut  the  footsteps  deep  enough  to 
make  them  absolutely  safe.  There  was  a  constant  dread 
lest  our  ladder  should  break  ofif,  and  we  be  thrown  either 
down  the  snow-slope  or  into  the  bottom  of  the  crevasse. 
At  last,  in  order  to  prevent  myself  from  falling  over 
backwards,  I  was  obliged  to  thrust  my  hand  into  the 
crack  between  the  ice  and  the  wall,  and  the  spire  became 
so  narrow  that  I  could  do  this  on  both  sides ;  so  that 
the  climb  was  made  as  upon  a  tree,  cutting  mere  toe- 
holes  and  embracing  the  whole  column  of  ice  in  my 
arms.  At  last  I  reached  the  top,  and,  with  the  greatest 
caution,  wormed  my  body  over  the  brink,  and  rolling- 
out  upon  the  smooth  surface  of  the  granite,  looked  over 
and  watched  Cotter  make  his  climb.  He  came  steadily 
up,  with  no  sense  of  nervousness,  until  he  got  to  the 
narrow  part  of  the  ice,  and  here  he  stopped  and  looked 
up  with  a  forlorn  face  to  me;    but  as  he  climbed  up. 


86       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

over  the  edge,  tlie  broad  smile  came  back  to  his  face, 
and  he  asked  me  if  it  had  occurred  to  me  that  we  had, 
by  and  by,  to  go  down  again. 

"  We  had  now  an  easy  slope  to  the  summit,  and  hur- 
ried up  over  rocks  and  ice,  reaching  the  crest  at  exactly 
twelve  o'clock.  I  rang  my  hammer  upon  the  topmost 
rock;  we  grasped  hands,  and  I  reverently  named  the 
grand  peak  Mount  Tyndall." 

Equally  graphic  and  vivid  is  John  Muir's  account  of 
his  own  ascent  of  Mt.  Ritter.  Of  this  mountain  he 
says :  "  It  is  king  of  the  mountains  of  the  middle  por- 
tion of  the  High  Sierra,  as  Shasta  of  the  north  and 
Whitney  of  the  south  sections.  Moreover,  as  far  as  I 
know,  it  had  never  been  climbed.  I  had  explored  the 
adjacent  wilderness  summer  after  summer,  but  my  stud- 
ies thus  far  had  never  drawn  me  to  the  top  of  it.  Its 
height  above  sea-level  is  about  13,300  feet,  and  it  is 
fenced  round  by  steeply  inclined  glaciers,  and  canyons 
of  tremendous  depths  and  ruggedness,  which  render  it 
almost  inaccessible.  But  difficulties  of  this  kind  only 
exhilarate  the  mountaineer.  .  .  ."  It  is  a  regret  to  cut 
out  one  word  of  the  preliminary  experiences,  especially 
those  of  sleeping  in  the  nook  of  a  pine-thicket  in  the 
close  company  of  five  or  six  birds  nestling  among  the 
tassels;  of  the  coming  up  of  the  night  gale;  of  the  sun's 
morning  greeting;  of  the  climbing  over  a  slope  of  hard 
granular  snow  with  a  surface  ipitted  into  ovals  which, 
as  it  got  steeper,  was  likely  to  shed  him  off  like  ava- 
lanching  snow,  until  at  last  the  divide  was  reached 
between  the  headwaters  of  Rush  Creek  and  the  north- 
ernmost tributaries  of  the  San  Joaquin.  Now  John 
ATuir  himself: 

"  Arriving  on  the  summit  of  this  dividing  crest,  one 
of  the  most  exciting  pieces  of  pure  wilderness  was  dis- 


On  the  Heights  87 

closed  that  I  ever  discovered  in  all  my  mountaineering. 
There,  immediately  in  front,  loomed  the  majestic  mass 
of  Mount  Ritter,  witli  a  glacier  swooping  down  its  face 
nearly  to  my  feet,  then  curving  westward  and  pouring 
its  frozen  flood  into  a  dark  blue  lake,  whose  shores  were 
bound  with  precipices  of  crystalline  snow ;  while  a  deep 
chasm  drawn  between  the  divide  and  the  glacier  sep- 
arated the  massive  picture  from  everything  else.  I  could 
see  only  the  one  sublime  mountain,  the  one  glacier,  the 
one  lake ;  the  whole  veiled  with  one  blue  shadow  —  rock, 
ice,  and  water  close  together  without  a  single  leaf  or 
sign  of  life.  After  gazing  spellbound,  I  began  instinc- 
tively to  scrutinize  every  notch  and  gorge  and  weathered 
buttress  of  the  mountain,  with  reference  to  making  the 
ascent.  The  entire  front  above  the  glacier  appeared  as 
one  tremendous  precipice,  slightly  receding  at  the  top, 
and  bristling  with  spires  and  pinnacles  set  above  one 
another  in  formidable  array.  Massive  lichen-stained 
battlements  stood  forward  here  and  there,  hacked  at  the 
top  with  angular  notches,  and  separated  by  frosty  gul- 
lies and  recesses  that  have  been  veiled  in  shadow  ever 
since  their  creation ;  while  to  right  and  left,  as  far  as 
I  could  see,  were  huge,  crumbling  buttresses,  offering 
no  hope  to  the  climber.  The  head  of  the  glacier  sends 
up  a  few  finger-like  branches  through  narrow  couloirs; 
but  these  seemed  too  steep  and  short  to  be  available, 
especially  as  I  had  no  ax  with  which  to  cut  steps,  and 
the  numerous  narrow-throated  gullies  down  which 
stones  and  snow  are  avalanched  seemed  hopelessly  steep, 
besides  being  interrupted  by  vertical  cliffs ;  while  the 
whole  front  was  rendered  still  more  terribly  forbidding 
by  the  chill  shadow  and  the  gloomy  blackness  of  the 
rocks. 

"  Descending  the  divide  in  a  hesitating  mood,  I  picked 


88       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

my  way  across  the  yawning  chasm  at  the  foot,  and 
climbed  out  upon  the  glacier.  ...  I  succeeded  in  gain- 
ing the  foot  of  the  cliff  on  the  eastern  extremity  of  the 
glacier,  and  there  discovered  the  mouth  of  a  narrow 
avalanche  gully,  through  which  I  began  to  climb,  intend- 
ing to  follow  it  as  far  as  possible,  and  at  least  obtain 
some  fine  wild  views  for  my  pains.  Its  general  course 
is  oblique  to  the  plane  of  the  mountain-face,  and  the 
metamorphic  slates  of  which  the  mountain  is  built  are 
cut  by  cleavage  planes  in  such  a  way  that  they  weather 
off  in  angular  blocks,  giving  rise  to  irregular  steps  that 
greatly  facilitate  climbing  on  the  sheer  places.  I  thus 
made  my  way  into  a  wilderness  of  crumbling  spires  and 
battlements,  built  together  in  bewildering  combinations, 
and  glazed  in  many  places  with  a  thin  coating  of  ice, 
which  I  had  to  hammer  off  with  stones.  The  situation 
was  becoming  gradually  more  perilous ;  but,  having 
passed  several  dangerous  spots,  I  dared  not  think  of 
descending;  for,  so  steep  was  the  entire  ascent,  one 
would  inevitably  fall  to  the  glacier  in  case  a  single  mis- 
step was  made.  Knowing,  therefore,  the  tried  danger 
beneath,  I  became  all  the  more  anxious  concerning  the 
developments  to  be  made  above,  and  began  to  be  con- 
scious of  a  vague  foreboding  of  what  actually  befell ; 
not  that  I  was  given  to  fear,  but  rather  because  my 
instincts,  usually  so  positive  and  true,  seemed  vitiated 
in  some  way,  and  were  leading  me  astray.  At  length, 
after  attaining  an  elevation  of  about  12,800  feet,  I 
found  myself  at  the  foot  of  a  sheer  drop  in  the  bed  of 
the  avalanche  cliannel  I  was  tracing,  which  seemed  abso- 
lutely to  bar  further  progress.  It  was  only  about  forty- 
five  or  fifty  feet  high,  and  somewhat  roughened  by  fis- 
sures and  projections;  but  these  seemed  so  slight  and 
insecure,   as   footholds,   that   I  tried   hard  to  avoid  the 


On  the  Heights 89 

precipice  altogether,  by  scaling  the  wall  of  the  channel 
on  either  side.  But,  though  less  steep,  the  walls  were 
smoother  than  the  obstructing  rock,  and  repeated  efforts 
only  showed  that  I  must  either  go  ahead  or  turn  back. 
The  tried  dangers  beneath  seemed  even  greater  than  that 
of  the  cliff  in  front;  therefore,  after  scanning  its  face 
again  and  again,  I  began  to  scale  it,  picking  my  holds 
with  intense  caution.  After  gaining  a  point  about  half- 
w^ay  to  the  top,  I  was  suddenly  brought  to  a  dead  stop, 
with  arms  outspread,  clinging  close  to  the  face  of  the 
rock,  unable  to  move  hand  or  foot  either  up  or  down. 
My  doom  appeared  fixed.  I  viiist  fall.  There  would  be 
a  moment  of  bewilderment,  and  then  a  lifeless  rumble 
down  the  one  general  precipice  to  the  glacier  below. 

"  When  this  final  danger  flashed  upon  me,  I  became 
nerve-shaken  for  the  first  time  since  setting  foot  on  the 
mountains,  and  my  mind  seemed  to  fill  with  a  stifling 
smoke.  But  this  terrible  eclipse  lasted  only  a  moment, 
when  life  blazed  forth  again  with  preternatural  clear- 
ness. I  seemed  suddenly  to  become  possessed  with  a 
new  sense.  The  other  self,  bygone  experiences.  Instinct, 
or  Guardian  Angel,  —  call  it  what  you  will,  —  came 
forward  and  assumed  control.  Then  my  trembling  mus- 
cles became  firm  again,  every  rift  and  flaw  in  the  rock- 
was  seen  as  through  a  microscope,  and  my  limbs  moved 
with  a  positiveness  and  precision  with  w^hich  I  seemed 
to  have  nothing  at  all  to  do.  Had  I  been  borne  aloft 
upon  wnngs,  my  deliverance  could  not  have  been  more 
complete. 

"  Above  this  memorable  spot,  the  face  of  the  moun- 
tain is  still  more  savagely  hacked  and  torn.  It  is  a 
maze  of  yawning  chasms  and  gullies,  in  the  angles  of 
which  rise  beetling  crags  and  piles  of  detached  boulders 
that   seem   to  have  been   gotten   ready  to  be   launched 


90       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

below.  But  the  strange  influx  of  strength  I  had  re- 
ceived seemed  inexhaustible.  I  found  a  way  without 
effort,  and  soon  stood  upon  the  topmost  crag  in  the 
blessed  light. 

"  How  truly  glorious  the  landscape  circled  around 
this  noble  summit !  —  giant  mountains,  valleys  innumer- 
able, glaciers  and  meadows,  rivers  and  lakes,  with  the 
wide  blue  sky  bent  tenderly  over  them  all.  But  in  my 
first  hour  of  freedom  from  that  terrible  shadow,  the 
sunlight  in  which  I  was  laving  seemed  all  in  all."  ^ 

Then  there  are  the  Santa  Cruz  Mountains,  —  moun- 
tains only  by  courtesy  in  California,  for  their  average 
altitude  is  not  higher  than  2,500  feet,  and  the  highest 
peak,  Loma  Prieta  —  Black  Mountain  —  reaches  only 
4,287  feet.  Another  interesting  peak  is  Ben  Lomond, 
overlooking  the  winding  course  of  the  San  Lorenzo 
River.  Good  trails  reach  all  the  salient  points  on  these 
mountains,  although  there  are  still  many  wild  and  almost 
inaccessible  places  not  far  from  the  California  Redwood 
Park.  This  park  comprises  some  four  thousand  acres 
and  was  purchased  by  the  State  with  the  avowed  object 
of  preserving  for  posterity,  in  all  their  native  wildness 
and  grandeur,  a  group  large  enough  to  be  called  a  forest, 
of  these  kings  of  arboreal  growth.  It  is  never  to  be 
cultivated;  it  is  to  remain  wild;  only  roads  and  trails 
sufficient  to  allow,  its  deepest  recesses  to  be  reached  are 
to  be  constructed,  and  such  work  done  as  is  essential 
to  its  safety  from  fire. 

Every  reader  of  Bret  Harte  will  recall  how  he  revelled 
in  the  scenery  of  these  mountains  when  they  were  far 
less  civilized  than  they  are  to-day.  Flip  opens  with  a 
description  that  could  have  been  written  only  by  one 
familiar  with  the  facts :   "  The  heated  air  was  filled  and 

^Mountains  of  California,  pp.  61,  62,  64,  65,  The  Centurj-  Co. 


On  the  Heights 91 

stifling  with  resinous  exhalations.  The  dehrious  spices 
of  bahii,  bay,  spruce,  juniper,  yerba  buena,  wild  syringa, 
and  strange  aromatic  herbs  as  yet  unclassified,  distilled 
and  evaporated  in  that  mighty  heat,  seemed  to  fire  with 
a  midsummer  madness  all  who  breathed  their  fumes. 
.  .  .  Nevertheless,  instead  of  enervating  man  and  beast, 
it  was  said  to  have  induced  the  wildest  exaltation." 

Later  he  tells  of  the  fogs  that  float  in  from  the  bay, 
tlien  the  w^onderful  clouds,  finally  the  winds  and  the  rain. 

The  rainfall  here  is  five  times,  or  more,  what  it  is  in 
Southern  California.  The  result  is  seen  in  the  rich 
verdure  that  clothes  all  the  mountain  slopes.  Nothing 
in  the  Berkshire  Hills,  the  Connecticut  River  Valley,  the 
Green  Mountains  of  Vermont,  surpasses  the  rich  green 
of  the  spring,  summer,  fall  and  winter  here,  and  this  is 
one  of  the  delights,  to  Easterners,  to  find  so  much  that 
is  usual  and  familiar  with  so  much  that  is  peculiar  and 
strange. 

It  is  one  of  the  romances  connected  wnth  the  moun- 
tains and  deserts  that  they  are  great  "  climate  breeders." 
One  looks  up  to,  and  over,  them  with  new  wonder  and 
respect  when  he  realizes  that  they  have  much  to  do  with 
making  the  climate  he  so  much  appreciates.  No  one 
has  written  more  effectively  and  interestingly  upon  this 
subject  than  Theodore  S.  Van  Dyke,  in  his  Southern 
California.  He  clearly  shows,  when  on  the  summit  of 
Mt.  Cuyamaca,  where  the  cool  summer  breeze  of  South- 
ern California  comes  from.  Half  a  mile  or  more  deep 
it  flows  in  from  the  ocean,  caused  by  the  suction  of  the 
heated  air,  rapidly  ascending  from  the  face  of  the  Colo- 
rado Desert,  whose  basin,  six  thousand  feet  deep,  lies 
just  beyond  to  the  east.  At  night  the  current  is  re- 
versed, owing  to  the  more  rapid  radiation  of  the  heat 
through  drier  air  on  the  desert,  than  on  the  verdure- 


92       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

covered  western  slopes.  Hence  there  is  a  constant  alter- 
nation of  cool  breezes,  both  purified  in  God's  own  lab- 
oratories of  desert  and  ocean  and  sweetened  by  contact 
with  myriads  of  balsam-laden  trees  which  crown  the 
moimtain-tops  and  line  the  slopes  over  which  the  cur- 
rents flow. 

It  is  the  peculiar  juxtaposition  of  desert,  mountain, 
plain  and  ocean  that  creates  the  peculiar  diversities  of 
climate  that  exist  in  Southern  California.  In  the  Colo- 
rado Desert  —  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  mountains  — 
the  summers  are  the  hottest  known  in  the  United  States, 
while  over  the  range,  fifty,  sixty  miles  away,  on  the 
coast  from  Santa  Monica  down,  they  are  the  coolest, 
and  between  the  two  is  every  combination  that  moun- 
tains and  valleys  can  produce. 

More  than  most  mountains  those  of  California  are 
romantic  in  the  marvellous  way  in  which  they  supply 
far-away  cities  with  their  needful  water.  A  few  years 
ago  the  civilized  world  was  astounded  that  a  city  of 
some  350,000  inhabitants  had  bonded  itself  in  the  great 
sum  of  twenty-four  and  a  half  million  dollars  to  secure 
an  adequate  water-supply.  For  years  Los  Angeles  had 
been  growing  so  rapidly  that  the  water  problem  began 
to  engage  the  serious  attention  of  those  whose  duty  it 
was  to  provide  for  the  enlarging  wants  of  the  commu- 
nity. Though  there  is  water  under  the  whole  plain  upon 
which  the  city  stands  the  supply  is  limited  and  to  draw 
upon  it  for  the  needs  of  the  city  would  have  prevented 
country  development  and  thus  have  reacted  unfavourably 
upon  the  city.  Hence  a  bold  plan  was  suggested  by  a 
former  mayor,  dul}^  considered,  deemed  feasible,  pre- 
sented to  the  people,  voted  upon,  adopted  and  carried  out. 
It  was  no  less  than  the  capturing  of  the  flood  waters  of 
Owens  River,  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierras,  250 


On  the  Heights  93 

miles  away,  impounding  them  in  reservoirs  and  then 
tunnelling,  piping,  siphoning,  and  canalling  them  through 
and  over  the  apparently  impassable  mountains,  foothills, 
plains,  deserts,  canyons  and  ravines  to  Los  Angeles.  By 
votes  of  ten  to  one  the  people  approved  of  the  plans  and 
of  the  bonds.     This  was  in  1907. 

Before  work  could  be  begun  on  the  aqueduct  215 
miles  of  road,  230  miles  of  pipe-line,  218  miles  of  power 
transmission  line,  and  ^^yj  miles  of  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone line  had  to  be  constructed. 

Tunnels  had  to  be  driven,  —  the  Elizabeth  Lake  tun- 
nel of  26,870  feet,  and  the  Red  Rock,  about  two  miles. 
The  "  Jawbone  "  division  is  a  series  of  tunnels  of  vary- 
ing length,  connected  by  short  stretches  of  conduit,  and 
crossing  the  deeper  and  wider  canyons  in  inverted  steel 
siphons.  There  are  12.07  niiles  of  tunnel,  7.47  miles  of 
conduit,  .04  of  a  mile  of  flume,  and  2.2  miles  of  steel 
siphon.  This  siphon  is  the  most  imposing  piece  of 
work  on  the  aqueduct.  Its  total  length  is  8,136  feet 
and  it  varies  from  7  feet  6  inches  to  10  feet  in  diam- 
eter. The  maximum  head  on  the  pipe  is  850  feet,  and 
its  total  weight  is  3,243  tons. 

The  city  also  decided  to  vote  three  and  a  half  million 
additional  bonds  for  the  establishment  of  electric  power 
plants  on  the  system.  The  engineers  showed  that  they 
could  develop  about  72,000  horse-power  electric  energy, 
the  sale  of  which  would  materially  help  in  paying  the 
interest  on  the  bonds.  The  private  electric  corporations 
fought  this  bond  issue  in  the  courts,  but  the  law  was 
finally  decided  in  the  interests  of  the  people  and  the 
project  is  being  carried  out. 

In  San  Francisco  the  same  call  has  been  made  upon 
the  mountains  for  its  water-supply.  Unfortunately  the 
site  selected  for  its  main  reservoir  is  the  famous  Hetch 


M       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Hetchy  Valley.  Those  who  love  the  natural  scenic  fea- 
tures of  the  Sierras  and  hate  to  see  them  destroyed 
protested  against  this  desecration  of  this  beauty  spot. 
They  argue  that  Hetch  Hetchy  was  not  the  only  avail- 
able site,  therefore  this  destruction  of  one  of  the  world's 
scenic  wonders  was  unnecessary.  But  the  so-called 
practical  men  of  the  city  won  in  the  conflict  and  Con- 
gress finally  passed  the  bill.  By  the  time  this  book  is  in 
type  there  is  no  doubt  that  work  will  be  well  under  way 
and  in  a  few  years  San  Francisco  will  receive  its  water- 
supply  from  tlie  High  Sierras  in  close  proximity  to  the 
Yosemite  Valley. 

In  intimate  connection  with  the  water  of  the  moun- 
tains is  the  electric  power  that  is  now  being  generated 
therefrom. 

Romance  never  imagined  anything  more  wonderful, 
astonishing,  or  startling.  Think  of  all  the  electric  cars 
in  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  in  Oakland,  Berkeley,  Ala- 
meda, Piedmont,  Fruitvale,  and  all  the  towns,  cities,  and 
villages  of  the  Sacramento  Valley,  —  for  even  villages 
and  country  ranches  are  reached  now  by  speeding  inter- 
urban  electric  car  systems.  Think  of  the  electric  light 
plants,  —  the  millions  upon  millions  of  candle-power 
used  nightly  in  these  cities,  towns  and  villages,  of  elec- 
tric fans,  of  electric  heaters,  of  electric  power  used  in 
a  thousand  and  one  factories,  of  electricity  supplied  to 
automobile  storage  batteries,  of  the  power  used  for  elec- 
tric welding  of  iron  and  steel,  of  the  saws  run  by  elec- 
tricity, the  printing-presses,  the  lathes,  grindstones,  drill- 
ing and  planing  machines  —  aye,  the  myriads  of  meth- 
ods by  which  men  make  this  subtle  power  of  the  universe 
accomplish  their  purposes  and  do  their  work,  —  and  all 
this  latent  power  is  stored  and  generated  in  these  far- 
away mountain  summits.     It  seems  incredible  —  it  is  ro- 


On  the  Heights  95 

mantic  in  the  extreme,  and  romantic  because  it  is  of  so 
recent  development,  and  even  yet,  so  few  of  those  who 
are  its  beneficiaries  have  the  remotest  idea  of  the  how 
and  whence  of  the  electric  power  they  so  readily  and 
complacently  use.  Here  is  my  lady,  piloting  her  electric 
limousine  through  the  crowded  city  streets.  Does  she 
dream  that  the  power  that  she  releases  by  the  mere  press- 
ing of  her  tiny  foot  upon  a  lever  was  created  in  the 
High  Sierras,  two,  three  hundred  miles  away,  in  the 
solitude  of  wide  spaces,  of  snow-clad  peaks,  of  dense 
forests,  of  deep-walled  canyons? 

The  sufferer  from  toothache  sits  in  the  dentist's  chair. 
The  operator  fixes  a  tiny  wheel  into  the  socket  of  an 
instrument,  touches  a  spring,  and  the  next  moment  the 
suffering  tooth  is  being  ground  or  bored,  and,  by  and 
by,  the  relief  comes  —  brought  on  a  wire  from  the  far- 
away summits  of  the  Sierras. 

For  there,  nestling  between  towering  peaks  and 
rugged  canyon  walls,  are  a  score  or  more  of  artificial 
lakes.  Lakes  made  by  the  power  of  man,  where,  per- 
haps, in  the  dim  centuries  agone  prior  to  the  glacial 
epoch,  natural  lakes  existed.  Nature  originally  made 
them,  and  then  unmade  them,  and  now  man  has  stepped 
in,  dammed  up  the  broken  ramparts  and  restored  them 
to  their  original  and  pristine  beauty. 

One  of  the  most  picturesque  and  romantic  of  these 
made  lakes  is  Lake  Spaulding,  which  lies  some  five  miles 
north  of  Emigrant  Gap,  near  the  snowsheds  of  the 
Southern  Pacific  Railway.  This  is  but  one  of  a  chain 
of  storage  reservoirs  which  fonned  a  part  of  the  old 
South  Yuba  Water  Company's  system.  In  the  early  days 
of  placer  mining  the  engineers  exercised  their  ingenuity 
and  skill  to  store  water  and  then  convey  it  in  canals, 
pipes,  flumes  and  siphons  to  the  far-away,  or  near-by, 


96       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

placers,  where  with  its  tremendous  energy  it  tore  down 
banks  and  walls  of  gravel  and  sand  in  which  the  precious 
metal  had  been  hidden  for  countless  centuries. 

In  course  of  time  this  industry  received  its  death-blow 
through  the  courts.  The  sand  and  silt  —  locally  called 
slickens  —  washed  down  into  the  creeks,  and  thence  into 
the  smaller  rivers  and  finall}^  into  the  Sacramento,  so 
filled  up  the  river-beds  and  flooded  the  fields  and  pas- 
tures as  to  be  a  serious  menace  to  agriculture.  The 
farmers  took  the  matter  into  the  courts,  where,  after 
long  and  expensive  litigation,  decisions  were  rendered 
afiinning  that  as  farming  and  horticulture  were  of 
greater  l^enefit  to  the  State  than  placer  mining,  and  as 
the  continuance  of  the  latter  meant  the  death  of  the 
former  in  the  affected  areas,  the  mining  must  cease. 

But  water  was  needed  for  irrigation  of  hitherto  unde- 
veloped lands,  and  there  was  also  a  growing  demand  for 
water  for  the  farmhouses,  villages  and  towns  that  grew 
up  and  flourished  as  agricultural  areas  increased.  The 
water  companies,  therefore,  turned  their  placer-mining 
water  facilities  into  the  new  directions. 

Then,  later,  as  the  need  for  electric  energy  increased 
by  leaps  and  bounds,  hydraulic  and  electrical  engineers 
put  their  heads  together  and  the  stored  water  of  the 
Sierras  came  into  new  use  for  the  generation  of  power. 
In  1895  the  first  charge  of  electric  energy  in  California 
was  shot  along  high-tension  wnres  from  a  little  plant 
on  the  American  River  near  Folsom  to  the  city  of  Sac- 
ramento, twenty-two  miles  distant.  To-day  the  region 
of  hydro-electric  development  in  the  Golden  State 
stretches  from  the  Oregon  line  to  the  southernmost  bor- 
der. Yet  the  aggregate  of  water-power  developed  to- 
day is  in  the  neighbourhood  of  but  450,000  horse-power, 
while  according  to  the  estimates  of  the  United   States 


On  the  Heights 97 

Department  of  Agriculture  the  potential  development 
reaches  up  into  the  millions. 

The  original  dam  that  made  the  first  Lake  Spaulding 
was  erected  in  1892.  In  1905  the  Pacific  Gas  and  Elec- 
tric Company  purchased  the  rights  of  the  old  company. 
In  19 1 2  they  began  the  work  of  enlarging  the  lake  and 
everything  connected  with  it.  An  army  of  men  worked 
day  and  night,  for  the  season  for  work  is  short,  and 
before  winter  snows  began  to  fall  the  foundation  of  the 
new  dam  had  been  placed  and  the  structure  stood  thirty- 
eisrht  feet  above  bed-rock.  At  the  same  time  work  on 
a  mile-long  tunnel  to  be  bored  through  the  solid  rock 
leading  from  the  dam  site  was  proceeded  with.  It  took 
all  winter  to  complete  it,  the  two  gangs,  working  from 
opposite  ends,  meeting  in  the  centre  in  May,  19 13. 

Canals  were  enlarged,  power-houses  with  all  necessary 
plants  erected  and  provided,  siphons  put  into  place,  steel 
skeleton  towers  erected  all  the  way  down  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, aluminum  wires  strung,  transforming  stations 
built.  Then,  as  soon  as  spring  came,  and  allowed  the 
recontinuance  of  dam  building,  the  army  of  concrete 
pourers  rushed  back  to  their  posts  and  the  dam  was 
raised  from  thirty-eight  feet  to  three  hundred. and  five 
feet,  —  the  highest  dam  above  river-bed  in  the  world. 
Even  to  bring  the  dam  up  to  the  225  foot  level  required 
the  placing  of  155,000  yards  of  concrete,  and  the  vast- 
ness  of  this  work  will  be  understood  when  it  is  told  that 
it  takes  a  very  large  city  building  to  require  one  thousand 
yards. 

But  inert  water  cannot  generate  power.  The  Lake 
Spaulding  water  had  to  be  conveyed  to  a  suitable  spot 
where  a  drop  could  be  had  to  give  force  to  the  inert 
liquid.  The  place  was  found  and  millions  of  pounds 
of  steel  pipe,  made  by  Californians  by  a  method  discov- 


98       California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ered  by  a  Californian,  were  put  into  place.  The  water 
M'as  made  to  drop  —  plunge  —  fall  down  a  1,375  foot 
precipice  into  the  wheels  at  the  Drum  power-house,  and 
there  the  miracle  of  conversion  to  electric  power  began, 
and  will  continue  so  long  as  the  plant  exists.  The  hith- 
erto useless  water  generates  33,000  horse-power  of  elec- 
tricity, and  when  the  plant  is  complete  it  will  be  capable 
of  sending  over  the  wires  150,000  horse-power. 

Is  it  not  romance  of  the  highest  order  that  when  a 
passenger  steps  from  his  transcontinental  train  on  the 
Oakland  pier  at  night-time,  and  the  ferryboat  begins  to 
plough  across  the  Bay  to  San  Francisco,  all  the  brilliant 
electric  lights  that  illuminate  the  city  of  the  western 
hills  and  the  Golden  Gate  gain  their  shine  and  glisten 
from  transformed  glaciers  and  snow-banks  in  the  Sierras 
upwards  of  two  hundred  miles  away.  Thus  modern 
commercialism  transcends  the  days  of  chivali*y,  of  the 
Crusades,  of  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  of  tourneys 
and  tournaments,  in  its  marvellous  romance  of  scientific 
achievement. 

And  it  is  not  one  city  alone  that  is  thus  fortunate. 
This  romantic  power  is  felt  from  one  end  of  the  State 
to  the  other. 

Take  the  city  of  Los  Angele?"^r  instance.  Twenty- 
five  years  ago  electricity  was  practically  unknown.  Yet 
all  the  latent  powers  of  Nature,  the  storms  that  brought 
the  snow,  the  winds  that  blew  the  rain-clouds  from  the 
Pacific  ON'cr  the  Sierras,  the  brooklets  that  concentrated 
the  rainfall,  and  the  tricklings  from  innumerable  springs 
into  the  mountain  basins  scooped  out  centuries  ago  by 
the  glaciers  —  all  these  were  in  existence,  simply  wait- 
ing for  the  brain  and  hands  of  man  to  develop  them. 
See  what  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  brought  forth ! 
Stand  with  me  in  the  High  Sierras,  about  seventy  miles 


On  the  Heights  99 

east  of  the  city  of  Fresno.  Here  we  are  in  the  absolute 
wilds  of  the  mountains  and  yet  we  soon  observe  that 
man  has  been  at  work.  In  the  narrow  pass  down  which 
flows  Big  Creek,  one  of  the  sources  of  the  San  Joaquin 
River,  a  dam  has  been  erected.  At  another  point,  still 
another  dam  has  built  up  the  Valley  Basin,  thus  making 
it  a  gigantic  reservoir  or  lake,  several  miles  long. 

In  the  olden  days  this  water  used  to  dash  down  the 
mountain-side  in  roaring  cascades,  dashing  waterfalls, 
and  tiny  creeks  lashed  into  foam  by  obstructing  boulders. 
Now  the  flow  is  concentrated  and  compelled  to  make  one 
gigantic  leap  of  over  two  thousand  feet,  confined  in  a 
pipe.  It  drops  into  the  maw  of  electric  generators,  which 
hum  a  new  tune  of  man's  creating  different  in  theme  and 
motive  from  the  wild  songs  of  the  past.  The  power  thus 
generated  is  then  sent  over  aluminum  wires,  over  moun- 
tains, hills,  canyons,  ravines,  rivers,  plains  and  deserts 
to  the  city  of  Los  Angeles,  nearly  three  hundred  miles 
away. 

How  many  people  are  there  living  in  Los  Angeles 
who  have  the  remotest  conception  of  the  link  that  con- 
nects this  wild  scene  of  the  Sierras  with  their  pleasure 
and  comfort?  Yet,  it  is  true  that  every  car-wheel  oper- 
ated in  this  City  of  the  Queen  of  the  Angels,  and  all 
electric  power  of  every  kind  is  developed  in  the  High 
Sierras,  and  brought  hither  over  the  wires. 

It  took  the  work  of  over  3,500  men  and  twelve  mil- 
lions of  dollars  to  accomplish  this,  and  they  had  to  bore 
a  tunnel  through  the  solid  granite  twelve  feet  in  diameter 
and  six  miles  long,  and  string  up  on  poles  eight  million 
pounds  of  aluminum  wires  before  one  ounce  of  electric 
energy  could  be  transmitted. 

The  streams  of  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Sierras,  also, 
have    felt   this   harnessing   power   of   man.      When   the 


100     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

mining  camps  of  Goldfield  and  Tonopah,  in  Nevada, 
sprang  so  suddenly  into  existence  in  1904,  there  was 
a  great  demand  for  concentrated  power,  and  a  company- 
undertook  the  development  of  hydro-electric  energy  from 
Bishop  Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Owens  River.  This 
creek,  is  about  fourteen  miles  long  and  in  this  distance 
it  falls  5,500  feet,  or  nearly  400  feet  to  the  mile.  It 
flows  between  canyon  walls  which  have  an  average  height 
of  1,000  feet.  The  particular  romantic  interest  attaching 
to  the  plants  established  here,  arises  from  the  fact  that 
the  water  is  used  seven  different  times,  and  that  the 
electric  generating  stations  are  at  different  elevations,  so 
that  the  same  water  is  used  for  driving  them  "  tandem." 
Two  reservoirs  were  created,  nestling  at  the  heads  of 
canyons,  surrounded  by  almost  vertical  cliffs  reaching 
far  above  to  the  jagged  minarets  and  glaciered  crevices 
of  the  granite  peaks  of  the  Sierras.  From  the  time  the 
water  leaves  the  reservoir  until  it  is  discharged  from  the 
generator  at  the  seventh  station  it  is  carried  in  pipes. 
This  not  only  conserves  the  water  and  allows  perfect 
regulation  of  its  flow,  but  it  prevents  ice  or  snow  from 
entering  and  clogging  or  injuring  the  machinery.  For 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  highest  of  these  plants 
is  over  8,000  feet  elevation,  nearly  1,500  feet  higher  than 
the  summit  of  Mt.  Washington,  the  dominating  mountain 
monarch  of  the  whole  of  the  Eastern  States.  After 
doing  service  in  the  generation  of  power  at  8,000  feet, 
the  water  drops  to  7,112  feet,  then  to  6,276,  5,156,  4,730 
and  4,460,  turning  the  electric  generators  at  each  sta- 
tion and  forcing  out  tremendous  energy  upon  the  alumi- 
num wires.  These  are  stretched  on  tow^ers  for  nearly 
250  miles  southward  —  not  counting  the  mileage  from 
Bishop  Creek  into  Nevada  —  over  hills  and  plains  to 
the  Mohave  Desert  and  thence  to  San  Bernardino,  Riv- 


On  the  Heights  101 

erside  and  the  Ferris  Valley.  The  wires  are  now  being 
extended  through  the  Coachella  Valley,  over  the  Colo- 
rado Desert  into  the  Imperial  Valley,  there  to  aid  in 
the  further  development  of  that  wonderful  region  whose 
rapid  rise  into  note  has  been  and  is  the  greatest  agricul- 
tural romance  of  the  century. 

Surely,  with  such  facts  as  these  before  us,  the  words 
of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  take  on  a  new  and  wonderful 
meaning :  "  I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  the  hills,  from 
whence  cometh  my  help."  The  forces  of  God  are  many 
and  varied,  and  slowly  man  is  beginning  to  know  them 
and  avail  himself  of  their  help. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  mountains  a  brief 
reference  must  be  made  to  what  they  offer  in  winter. 
Too  long  have  Calif oniians,  as  well  as  strangers,  re- 
garded them  as  inaccessible  and  impossible  wlien  clothed 
in  their  winter  robes.  Writers  and  travellers  have  told 
us  of  the  depth  to  which  the  snow  falls,  rendering  the 
passes  and  roads  inaccessible,  so  that  those  who  are  com- 
pelled to  stay  for  the  winter  in  their  heights  are  inevi- 
tably shut  in  and  solitary  until  the  spring  comes  to  re- 
lease them  from  their  icy  bondage.  Miss  Gordon-Cum- 
ming,  in  her  interesting  Granite  Crags,  thus  refers  to' 
the  dangers :  "  Thanks  to  huge  snow-shoes,  ten  or  twelve 
feet  long,  turned  up  in  front  like  the  runner  of  a  skate, 
and  with  a  leather  strap  in  the  middle,  which  is  lightly 
laced  over  the  instep,  a  good  deal  of  travelling  can  be 
done  on  tolerably  level  ground;  but  of  course  these  are 
utterly  useless  in  traversing  diffjcult  mountain-ridges 
[the  italics  are  mine],  where  the  rocky  paths  are  no 
child's  playground  at  any  time,  being  merely  trails  wind- 
ing along  almost  precipitous  crags,  or  crumbling  slopes 
of  disintegrated  rock,  which  at  any  moment  may  give 
way  to  the  constant  action  of  wind  and  weather  and 


102     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

natural  drainage,  and  glide  down  with  headlong  crash, 
to  find  rest  in  the  valley  some  thousand  feet  below. 

''Of  course  in  the  deep  snow  every  familiar  landmark 
is  so  utterly  changed,  that  the  oldest  hunter  could 
scarcely  guess  where,  beneath  the  smooth  expanse  of 
beautiful,  treacherous  white,  lies  the  hidden  path ;  and 
rash  indeed  must  be  the  man  who  attempts  to  force  his 
way  in  defiance  of  the  snow-king." 

I  have  quoted  thus  extensively  and  emphasized  one 
■of  the  "  of  courses,"  because  the  opinions  herein  ex- 
pressed are  common.  Never  were  "  of  courses  "  more 
absurd  and  irrelevant.  They  seem  to  be  clear  and  in- 
controvertible, but  that  is  because  both  writer  and  reader 
take  for  granted  what  appears  reasonable  to  their  inex- 
perience. How  I  would  that  all  to  whom  these  "  of 
courses  '"  appeal  could  have  seen  the  Snow  Carnival  at 
Truckee  in  the  winter  of  19 13-14,  when  men  and  women 
used  the  snow-shoes  —  the  Scandinavian  skis,  pronounced 
skees  —  as  ordinary  people  wear  shoes.  How  I  would 
like  them  to  read  the  account  of  Snow-Shoe  Thomp- 
son's skimming  over  the  High  Sierras,  even  when  fierce 
storms  and  blizzards  were  raging,  carrying  mail-sacks 
weighing  from  sixty  to  as  high  as  one  hundred  pounds. 
Yes,  "  of  course,  in  the  deep  snow  every  familiar  land- 
mark is  utterly  changed,"  but  no  one  cares  a  rap,  and 
as  for  the  "  hidden  path  beneath  the  smooth  expanse  of 
beautiful,  treacherous  white,"  who  wants  the  hidden 
path  ?  How  utterly  short-sighted  and  blind  we  are  when 
dealing  with  unfamiliar  things.  I  have  gone  miles  and 
miles  on  snow-shoes  where  there  was  no  other  path  than 
the  glorious  and  perfect  one  made  by  the  freshly-fallen 
snow,  and  even  though  the  landmarks  were  changed,  the 
general  courses  were  easily  determined,  and  the  joy  of 
snow-shoeing  is  that  one  can  go  over  ravines   (a  hun- 


^^^^B 

^^^^^^^^^^^^B^' ' 

"     '■-7.     ^r^j- 

On  the  Heights 103 

dred,  two  hundred  feet  deep  in  snow),  over  precipices, 
over  chaparral,  over  bad-lands,  over  rivers,  creeks  and 
the  ordinary  obstructions  that  compel  deviations  from  a 
straight  course  during  good  weather,  and  pay  little  or 
no  attention  to  them.  There  is  a  freedom,  a  delight,  an 
exhilaration  in  thus  riding  or  walking  —  no,  gliding  — 
straight  ahead,  on  the  snowy  surface,  over  places  where 
one  must  cautiously  and  laboriously  climb  in  summer 
weather,  that  words  fail  to  express.  Dr.  J.  E.  Church, 
Jr.,  of  Reno,  Nevada,  the  founder  and  conductor  of  the 
Mt.  Rose  Observatory,  connected  with  the  University  of 
Nevada,  revels  in  the  joy  of  scaling  the  nearly  eleven 
thousand  foot  altitude  of  Mt.  Rose  to  his  observatory 
v^'hen  the  winter's  snow  is  at  its  deepest. 

How  Dick  Michaelis,  the  rare  guide  of  Glen  /Vlpine, 
in  the  Tahoe  region,  would  laugh  at  the  statement  that 
snow-shoes  are  utterly  useless  in  traversing  difficult 
mountain-ridges.  So  would  Bob  Watson,  the  best  posted 
guide  of  the  Tahoe  region,  wdio,  year  after  year,  has 
accompanied  a  few  enthusiastic  California  snow-shoers 
from  Lake  Tahoe,  over  the  wild  ridges,  canyons,  slopes 
and  mountain  shoulders  of  the  Rubicon,  American  and 
other  rivers,  at  their  headwaters  in  the  Sierra  Nevada. 

A  new  delight  awaits  Americans  of  real  athletic  heart 

—  women  as  well  as  men.  That  is  of  scaling  the  moun- 
tains of  California  in  the  snow.  The  chief  hotels  of  the 
Tahoe  region  should  keep  open  all  the  year,  and  would 
do  so,  if  Americans  and  others  who  visit  California  in 
winter  were  awake  to  the  joys  of  which  they  now  know 
nothing.  To  skim  up  Glen  Alpine,  under  the  trees  near 
Fallen  Leaf  Lake,  over  the  pass  into  Desolation  Valley, 

—  where  the  snow  falls  and  drifts  to  a  depth  of  ten, 
twenty,  thirty,  fifty  feet,  and  where  neither  rugged 
boulders,    rocky   slopes   or   glacial   lakes   interfere   with 


104     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

one's  progress,  —  through  Mosquito  Pass,  down  the 
Rubicon,  and  so  on,  and  up  and  down,  and  back  again, 
is  a  joy  comparable  only  to  flying  through  the  air  in 
a  modern  biplane,  riding  in  one's  dreams  on  the  giant 
auk  with  Sinbad  the  sailor,  or  on  the  Magic  Carpet  of 
the  Oriental  wizard.  Of  course  it  is  strenuous,  and  of 
course,  one  takes  some  chances  of  upsets,  of  storms,  of 
accidents.  So  does  the  cross-country  rider,  the  aero- 
planist,  the  desert  and  mountain  automobilist,  the  ordi- 
nary mountain  climber,  but  such  strenuous  adventurers 
gain  a  thrill,  a  bite  into  life's  apple  that  more  than  com- 
pensates for  all  the  risks. 


x' 


CHAPTER    VII 

ON    MOUNTAIN    TRAILS 

In  the  East  there  are  "  bridle  paths."  Here  there 
are  only  "  trails."  There  the  paths  are  largely  found 
in  city  parks,  where  there  is  as  much  formality  and  con- 
vention in  riding  as  there  is  in  the  observance  of  eticjuette 
in  the  dining-room.  Here  the  trails  are  over  mountains, 
through  almost  virgin  forests,  down  nearly  inaccessible 
canyons,  over  rugged  ridges,  many  of  them  scarce  used 
except  by  the  deer,  lynx,  coyote  and  mountain  lion, 
mere  aids  to  men  in  the  rough-hewing  out  of  a  new 
world,  where  convention  is  little  heeded,  and  etiquette 
an  unknown  word,  and  where  a  man's  riding  is  as  the 
wind. 

The  first  trail  makers  were  the  wild  animals.  Going 
to  and  from  water,  seeking  food,  they  pushed  their  way 
through  brush  and  around  rocks,  over  streams  and 
through  bogs  and  marshes;  they  forded  streams,  as- 
cended mountains,  tracked  their  prey  through  forests, 
descended  abysmal  canyons,  and  braved  the  heat,  the 
waterlessness,.  the  sand-storms  and  solitude  of  the  desert 
equally  with  the  snow,  wind  and  rain  storms,  the  tor- 
rents and  the  ruggedness  of  the  mountains. 

Then  came  the  Indian ;  as  much  a  son  of  Nature  as 
the  four-footed  beast ;  he  used  the  trails  ready  made, 
and  here  and  there  improved  them.  They  were  the  only 
highways  and  byways  of  the  country  until  the  white  man 
came.     Some  of  these  appeared  to  the  Indian  to  come 

105 


106     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

in  gigantic  white-winged  birds  that  skimmed  over  the 
face  of  the  mighty  ocean  and  carried  on  their  backs 
scores  of  men,  who  were  clad  in  leather  jackets  which 
turned  the  arrows  fiercely  fired  against  them,  or  made 
the  javelins,  spears  and  lances  thrown  at  them  fall  harm- 
lessly to  the  ground.  Others  were  men  of  stern  face, 
unsmiling  and  severe,  worse  even  than  their  own  sha- 
mans or  medicine-men,  who  sang  songs  and  went  through 
mysterious  incantations  that  angered  their  gods  and 
brought  evil  upon  them. 

Others  of  these  white-faced  men  came  over  the  land 
riding  on  strange  four-footed  beasts,  unlike  any  they 
had  ever  seen  before.  They  carried  heavy  sticks  in  their 
hands,  from  which  lightning  and  death-dealing  thunder- 
bolts were  discharged  at  will. 

These  were  self-willed,  domineering,  conquering  men, 
who  said  Go !  and  they  must  go.  Come !  and  they  must 
come,  who  demanded  that  this  and  that  be  done,  and 
who,  now  and  again,  stole  their  wives  and  daughters, 
and  against  whose  power  they  were  helpless  to  prevent, 
rescue  or  be  revenged. 

Then  they  began  to  build  great  Jiawas,  kans,  or 
churches,  as  they  called  them,  for  the  worship  of  their 
strange  and  unknown  God,  who  was  so  different  from 
their  own  many  gods;  and  they  demanded  work  of  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  land.  Soon  they  increased 
in  number,  and  after  building  these  churches  all  the  In- 
dians were  engaged  in  their  activities  from  the  land  of 
the  cactus  and  burning  sands  of  the  South  to  the  big 
trees  and  snowy  mountain  ranges  of  the  North. 

Then,  suddenly,  yellow  pieces  of  rock  were  found  that 
seemed  to  send  these  white  men  crazy.  They  hunted 
high  and  low  for  it  everywhere,  and  with  the  passing 
of  a  few  moons  the  white-winged  birds  of  the  sea,  which 


On  Mountain  Trails  107 


the  Indians  now  knew  were  shifts,  brought  more  white 
men  by  the  hundreds,  the  thousands,  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands. The}^  also  poured  in  over  the  mountain  passes 
in  wagons  drawn  by  bullocks,  oxen  and  horses.  They 
rode  in  by  every  possible  and  impossible  trail,  and  scores 
and  hundreds  came  in  afoot,  all  eager,  all  anxious,  all 
hurried,  all  determined  to  find  the  yellow  rock,  or  to 
wrest  the  sand  of  the  same  colour  from  the  bottoms  of 
the  streams,  or  even  out  of  the  face  of  the  hills. 

What  turmoil,  what  excitement,  what  changes !  On 
their  hillsides  of  peace  and  quiet  for  untold  centuries 
towns  sprang  up.  By  the  Big  Water  scores,  hundreds, 
thousands  of  these  white  men  built  a  vast  city,  whose 
kans  were  in  straight  lines,  in  which  they  hoarded  corn 
and  wheat  and  flour  and  fruit  and  vegetables  and  eat- 
ables the  Indians  had  never  before  heard  of ;  enough  to 
feed  all  the  Indians  of  the  land  for  many  moons.  They 
also  brought  with  them  fire-water,  water  that  burned  the 
lips  and  tongue  and  throat  as  it  went  down,  that  made 
tears  come  to  the  eyes,  but  that  made  the  drinker  feel 
that  he  was  the  unaided  master  of  the  dreaded  mountain- 
lion  and  lynx,  aye,  that  would  send  him  forth  undaunted 
and  assured  to  slay  the  fierce  and  hitherto  unconquer- 
able grizzly. 

Then,  then,  began  the  great  era  of  trails.  The  white 
man  was  irresistible.  He  was  indefatigable.  He  was 
restless.  He  would  go  everywhere.  His  knife,  his 
tomahawk  were  not  of  flint,  but  of  a  cutting-power 
that  surpassed  anything  ever  before  seen.  He  called  the 
material  "  steel,"  and  he  had  implements  he  called  pick- 
axes, drills,  shovels,  and  black  sand  he  called  powder, 
which,  when  placed  in  holes,  forced  by  hammer  and 
drill  into  the  hardest  and  most  immovable  rock,  rent  it 
In  twain  with  a  fierce,  loud  noise  and  a  hateful  smoke, 


108     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

but  that  showed  how  unconquerable  were  these  pale- 
faced  strangers  from  the  lands  beyond  the  mountains 
and  the  sea. 

And  thus  trail-making  in  a  modern  sense  began,  until 
now  California  is  lined,  seamed,  scarred  and  criss-crossed 
with  trails  that  lead  one  to  marvellous  heights,  through 
paradises  of  delights,  into  abysmal  depths  of  astonish- 
ment and  sublimity,  through  forests  of  perpetual  gloom, 
by  streams  of  blue  and  magical  white,  and  by  lakes  of 
perennial  beauty.  To  give  the  newcomer  in  California 
a  mere  touch  and  go  of  the  romance  and  beauty  of  these 
trails  is  .the  purpose  of  this  chapter. 

Go  to  any  city,  town  or  village  in  the  State  and  ask 
to  be  taken  over  a  mountain,  canyon  or  forest  trail,  and 
you  can  scarcely  fail  to  be  accommodated.  From  San 
Diego  on  the  South  to  Eureka,  Weed  and  Ft.  Bidwell 
on  the  North  there  are  trails  everywhere.  Trails  into 
the  Sierras,  the  Coast  Range,  the  Santa  Cruz  Mountains, 
the  Sierra  Santa  Ines,  Palomar  Mountains,  the  Siski- 
yous.  Trails  through  the  forests,  into  the  canyons  and 
along  the  Cliffs  of  the  Sea. 

Well  do  I  remember  one  of  my  earliest  experiences 
trailing  over  into  the  W^arner  Spur  of  the  Sierras,  in 
Modoc  County,  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  with  beloved 
Joseph  Le  Conte,  the  eminent  geologist  of  the  University 
of  California,  and  his  son  Joe  —  now  also  a  professor 
in  the  same  university.  We  met  at  Reno,  Nevada,  the 
two  Le  Contes  coming  by  train,  and  I  in  a  buckboard 
drawn  by  four  horses.  We  rode  over  two  hundred  miles 
thus  to  Eagleville  in  Surprise  Valley,  and  then  trans- 
ferred our  sleeping-outfit  and  provisions  to  pack-animals. 
What  fun  we  had  packing!  We  had  only  one  pack- 
saddle,  and  while  Dr.  Le  Conte  knew  how  to  do  it,  he 
preferred  to  let  his  son  and  myself  "  fight  it  out "  for 


ALONG    (ILAt'lER    TR.AIL. 


On  Mountain  Trails  109 

ourselves,  after  he  had  once  shown  iis  how.  It  is  half 
the  battle,  if  one  is  going  for  a  prolonged  camping  trip, 
to  know  how  to  pack  swiftly  and  securely.  Our  packs 
slipped  sideways,  backwards  and  forwards.  They  were 
top-heavy,  lop-sided  and  wobblety.  They  were  every- 
thing they  ought  not  to  have  been  and  nothing  they 
should  have  been. 

Now  I  know  enough  to  take  good  pack-saddles,  with 
a  pair  of  kyaxcs  for  each  animal.  A  kyax  is  a  box,  large 
enough  to  hold  two  five-gallon  cans,  but  made  of  green 
rawhide,  stretched  upon  a  wooden  skeleton.  It  is  light, 
flexible  and  strong.  With  one  of  these  strung  from  the 
pack-saddle  on  each  side  of  the  animal,  the  load  is  care- 
fully balanced,  as  each  side  must  have  as  near  as  pos- 
sible the  same  weight.  The  smallest  heavy  goods  ■ — 
canned  provisions,  sugar  and  the  like,  are  placed  in  the 
kyaxes,  taking  care  that  all  supplies  are  in  strong  canvas 
bags  (which  cannot  burst  and  spill  the  contents).  Upon 
these  things  and  in  the  crotch  of  the  saddle  the  larger 
and  heavier  things  may  be  set,  and  then,  over  all,  the 
bedding",  firmly  and  securely  covered  by  canvas  to  pre- 
vent tearing  and  catching  upon  trees  or  rugged  rocks. 
The  final  triumph  of  the  packer's  art  is  the  tying  on  of 
the  pack.  This  should  be  done  with  the  diamond  hitch, 
a  style  of  rope  lashing  that  the  experience  of  many  years 
has  demonstrated  is  the  most  secure. 

But  in  those  early  days  I  knew  nothing  of  the  diamond 
hitch,  and  I  doubt  w^hether  Dr.  Le  Conte  did.  Anyhow 
we  didn't  use  it,  and  at  every  place  where  horses  could 
disarrange  a  pack,  our  horses  succeeded,  without  effort, 
in  doing  so.  Our  trail  was  none  too  good  and  clear, 
and  sometimes  we  got  lost  in  the  woods.  Then  was  the 
time  for  the  pack-animals.  They  would  neither  lead, 
follow,  nor  be  driven.     Their  chief  desire  seemed  to  be 


110     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

to  get  out  of  sight,  as  speedily  as  possible,  and  then 
either  lie  d9wn,  or  rub  against  the  trees  to  work  off  their 
packs.  Poor  creatures !  I  can  sympathize  with  them 
now,  for  doubtless  they  were  \'ery  uncomfortable. 

At  one  place  —  I  can  see  them  now  —  we  came  to  a 
stream  flowing  through  a  mountain  meadow.  The  water 
had  cut  the  earth  down  several  feet,  so  that  the  only 
way  to  cross  was  to  jump.  Our  own  saddle-animals 
went  across  without  any  demur,  but  when  the  pack-ani- 
mals sprang  something  happened  in  every  case.  On  one 
pack  we  had  tied  our  coffee-pot  and  several  other  jan- 
gling pieces  of  tinware.  When  "  Jennie  "  —  for  that 
was  the  name  of  the  patient  carrier  of  the  tinware  — 
jumped,  the  tinware  made  such  an  unexpected  clatter, 
or  hit  her  in  some  rude  fashion,  that  she  was  startled, 
and  before  any  one  could  prevent  she  was  off  like  a 
streak  of  yellow  and  dirty  white  lightning,  evidently 
scared  out  of  all  the  senses  she  had. 

Another  pony,  "  Bob,''  managed  to  turn  his  pack,  and 
this  so  scared  him  that  he  began  to  make  the  most  vig- 
orous efforts  to  rid  himself  of  it  by  kicking  it  from  under 
his  belly  with  his  two  hind  feet.  Somehow  one  foot 
caught,  and  in  the  jerk,  threw  him  with  such  force  that 
most  of  the  wind  was  knocked  out  of  his  body,  as  one 
could  tell  by  the  deep,  long,  groaning  sigh  he  let  forth. 

"  Belle  "  was  equally  unfortunate.  Her  pack  slipped 
sideways  in  such  fashion  that  she  viewed  its  bulge  on 
her  starboard  side  with  suspicion.  She  gave  it  a  vicious 
side-swipe  with  her  right  hind  foot  and  then  started  off, 
in  a  sidling  or  almost  circular  fashion,  until  she  suc- 
ceeded in  loosening  everything.  This  scattered  the  few 
wits  sihe  had  left,  and  as  if  possessed  with  all  the  devils 
that  entered  the  swine  of  Gadara,  she  started  off  for  the 
North   Pole,   or  the  other,  bucking  furiously  at  every 


On  Mountain  Trails  111 


jump.  Coffee,  sugar,  canned  beans,  condensed  milk, 
flour,  a  bottle  that  Dr.  Le  Conte  used  as  a  rolling-pin, 
and  a  score  of  other  articles  were  scattered  in  the  melee. 
Joe  and  I  were  frantic.  But  the  doctor  sat  on  his  horse 
laughing  until  the  tears  ran  down  his  cheeks,  until  finally 
he  had  to  dismount  to  do  his  chortling  and  chuckling 
on  terra  finna. 

It  took  us  a  long  time  to  gather  our  scattered  horses 
and  goods  and  repack,  and  we  both  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  unless  they  were  more  expert  than  we  most 
packers  well  earned  their  $2.50  per  diem. 

Last  week  I  took  another  brief  packing  trip.  Leav- 
ing Los  Angeles  on  the  four  o'clock  car,  and  riding  to 
Sierra  Madre,  with  several  companions,  we  put  our  sev- 
eral belongings  on  a  burro  and  started  up  the  trail  for 
the  Muir  Lodge  of  the  Sierra  Club,  up  Little  Santa  Anita 
Canyon.  For  more  than  half  the  distance  the  trail  is 
cut  shelf-like  on  the  slopes  of  Mt.  Wilson,  and  as  one 
ascends  he  gains  more  and  more  expansive  views  of  the 
rich  San  Gabriel  Valley.  Most  of  it  is  now  planted  out 
to  orchards  of  oranges,  lemons,  grape-fruit,  almonds, 
peaches,  apricots  and  pears,  or  to  alfalfa  or  grain  of  some 
kind.  A  score,  a  hundred  different  tints  and  shades  of 
green,  contrast,  harmonize,  set  off, each  other,  while  the 
scars  of  the  various  "  washes,"  —  the  flood  courses  of 
the  rivers  and  streams,  —  like  gigantic  serpents  stretch 
their  gray  and  tawny  lengths  from  one  side  of  the  valley 
to  the  other.  After  a  long  ascent,  the  ridge  is  reached, 
then  begins  the  descent  into  the  bed  of  the  canyon.  The 
trail  is  pretty  much  the  same,  —  through  chaparral  of 
a.  dozen  varieties,  and  with  flowers  of  a  thousand  kinds, 
—  but  the  outlook  is  now  down  upon  the  winding  course 
of  the  canyon  and  its  sheltered  trees,  and  into  the  hidden 
recesses  of  the  rugged  mountain.     From  below  ascends 


112     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  heavy  roar  of  the  stream,  for  there  is  still  plenty 
of  water,  though  the  heavy  winter  rains  have  passed. 
Indeed,  as  soon  as  we  reached  the  bed  of  the  canyon, 
we  found  vivid  reminders  that  this  year's  storms  have 
been  extra  severe.  It  had  rapidly  been  darkening  as 
we  descended,  and  our  guide  ahead  discovered  changes 
in  the  trail  caused  by  earth-slides,  or  washing  away  by 
the  flood.  Now  for  an  hour  and  a  half  we  felt  our  way, 
crossing  and  recrossing  the  stream,  almost  guessing  at 
the  trail  a  large  part  of  the  time,  for  so  many  portions 
had  been  completely  washed  out,  that  changes  innumer- 
able had  taken  place.  The  pack-burro  insisted  upon 
going  where  the  old  trail  ought  to  be  and  refused  to 
cross  the  stream  at  new  places ;  those  who  were  afoot 
found  it  hard  in  the  dark  to  cross  the  stream  where 
boulders  were  scarce.  The  only  light  we  had  was  from 
two  ingeniously-constructed  lanterns,  called  "  bugs  "  — 
made  by  taking  a  discarded  tin  can,  rudely  boring  a 
hole  at  one  side,  into  which  a  candle  is  thrust,  then  wir- 
ing a  handle  into  the  other  side  and  using  the  mouth  of 
the  can  as  a  searchlight.  Blunderingly,  stumblingly  we 
crept  along.  There  was  little  or  no  light  from  the  stars, 
and  the  moon  was  away  off  elsewhere.  The  trees  grew 
thicker,  the  noisy  stream  noisier  as  we  proceeded.  At 
last  we  reached  the  houses,  the  bungalows,  shacks  or 
cottages  of  those  who  have  leased  spaces  from  the  For- 
estry Department,  and  from  now  on  the  trail  was  more 
certain.  The  flashing  lights  from  uncurtained  windows 
dazzled  our  eyes  yet  gave  a  kind  of  silent  welcome,  and 
now  and  again  a  shout  of  cheer  arose  from  the  inmates 
in  response  to  some  cryptic  yell  given  forth  by  our  leader. 
At  last  the  signs  told  him  that  we  were  nearing  the 
Lodge.  A  meeting  was  to  be  held  and  the  time  assured 
us  the  throng  must  already  have  assembled,  hence  his  an- 


On  Mountain  Trails  113 

nouncing  shout  was  eagerly  responded  to  by  half  a  dozen 
sentinels.  Heartily  but  hastily  our  hands  were  clasped 
in  greeting  and  a  chair  was  provided  for  us  in  the  door- 
way, from  which  satisfactory  outlook  we  could  see  the 
crowd  of  men  and  women  within,  as  well  as  the  Lodge 
itself,  —  a  granite  boulder  building,  with  an  immense 
hospitable  fireplace,  beyond  which  a  wide  cushioned 
lounge  or  seat  lined  the  wall  and  continued  around  the 
end  and  part  of  the  opposite  side  of  the  building.  It 
is  a  locker,  for  the  seat  lifts  on  its  hinges  and  allows 
the  deposition  therein  of  rolls  of  bedding,  sleeping-bags, 
and  the  like  of  the  members,  who  use  the  Lodge  as  their 
headquarters  for  weekly,  biweekly,  monthly  or  casual 
visits  to  the  canyon,  and  its  cushion,  if  necessary,  makes 
the  basis  of  a  good  camping-out  bed. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  room  is  the  library,  —  for  these 
city  mountaineers  are  readers  —  and  of  good  literature, 
too,  though  most  of  the  books  deal  with  the  mountains. 
Flanking  the  bookcases  on  one  side  is  the  locker  room 
for  the  Sierra  Club  members,  and  on  the  other  the 
kitchen,  where  a  kind  of  "  large  family  "  cooking  ar- 
rangements are  provided  for. 

On  the  mantel  above  the  fireplace  is  a  fine  auto- 
graphed photograph  of  the  honoured  president  of  the 
Club,  —  John  Muir,  —  and  the  walls  are  dotted  with 
superior  photographs  of  mountain  scenes,  waterfalls, 
canyons,  tree  touches  that  have  been  contributed  by  the 
members. 

After  an  interesting  evening  cots  and  a  few  blankets 
were  provided  in  the  open,  and  we  were  soon  sleeping 
the  sleep  of  the  healthfully  weary  under  the  silent  stars 
and  canopied  with  the  blue  dome  of  God's  own  out-of- 
doors.  Though  we  had  had  lots  of  fun  coming  up  the 
trail  in  the  dark,  it  was  left  for  the  morning  to  enable 


114     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

us  to  go  still  higher  to  the  beautiful  falls  beyond,  and 
to  climb  to  its  lip  and  from  thence  look  down  on  the  dap- 
pled surface  of  the  tree-tops  beneath.  Glinting  and  glis- 
tening in  the  sun,  played  upon  by  the  breeze,  alder  and 
sycamore,  pine  and  willow  each  offered  its  own  con- 
tribution to  the  leafy  dance  of  colour  and  rhythm,  while 
the  sparkle  of  blue  water,  dashing  foam  and  gray  granite 
beneath  gave  added  notes  of  beauty.  Fifty,  a  hundred, 
or  more  of  the  Club  members  and  their  friends  —  school- 
teachers, clerks,  bookkeepers,  heads  of  business  firms  — 
were  climbing  the  hills  beyond,  quietly  sitting  by  the 
stream,  at  the  foot  of  the  falls,  or  under  the  shade  of 
the  trees.  Some  were  clearly  alone,  —  loafing  and  in- 
viting their  own  souls,  —  while  others  were  enjoying  the 
exuberance  of  the  spring  morning  in  its  canyon  expres- 
sion with  their  friends. 

Quiet  mountaineering  certainly,  involving  a  compara- 
tively easy  walk  up  on  Saturday  night,  and  an  equally 
easy  return  Sunday  evening  or  Monday  morning,  but 
what  a  blessed  way  of  spending  the  Sabbath  for  weary 
city  men  and  women.  There  is  no  sweetener  of  human 
life  more  reliable  and  sure  than  the  mountains.  Flee 
to  them.  Help  comes  to  body,  mind  and  soul  as  of  yore. 
The  trees  wave  you  a  hearty  welcome  and  afford  shade 
and  shelter;  the  brook  sings,  in  liquid,  rich  cadences, 
its  joyful  message  of  the  beauty  of  life  and  work,  and 
at  night  soothes  you  with  the  assurance  that  "  something 
attempted,  something  done,  has  earned  a  night's  re- 
pose ;  "  the  fall  booms  out,  with  exuberant  energy,  its 
accompanying  harmonies ;  the  snow-clad  peaks  gaze 
sympathetically  down,  lending  their  shadow  when  needed 
to  help  curtain  the  world  away;  and  over  all  broods  the 
peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding  and  as- 
sures the  heart  of  man  and  woman  that  we  are,  indeed. 


On  Mountain  Trails  115 

the  sons  and  daughters  of  God,  and  that  His  mountains 
are  blessed  gifts  to  us. 

Few  countries  in  the  world  are  so  highly  favoured 
as  is  the  Golden  State  in  this  matter  of  trails.  There 
are  thousands  of  miles  of  them,  and  each  has  its  own 
individuality  and  charm.  Some  are  well  engineered  and 
made,  others  made  themselves  (that  is,  as  far  as  man 
is  concerned  —  the  wild  animals  having  attended  to  the 
matter  before  he  came  on  the  scene),  some  are  up  easy 
grades,  others  up  hills,  rough,  rocky,  and  steep.  Every 
taste  can  be  satisfied,  every  mountain  hunger  appeased, 
every  kind  of  experience  assured. 

Other  wonderful  trail  trips  might  be  outlined  by  the 
score,  nay,  by  the  hundred.  Recently  two  friends  made 
five  hundred  miles  in  the  Sierra  Nevadas,  wnth  no  other 
company  than  that  of  their  burros.  They  had  to  be 
taught  to  put  on  their  first  pack,  on  reaching  Sprlngville 
from  Goshen  Junction,  on  the  Valley  Line  of  the  South- 
ern Pacific.  Up  the  Tule  River,  on  to  the  South  Middle 
Fork  to  Nelson's  ranch;  then  to  the  Big  Trees,  and  up 
and  on,  they  reached  Grouse  Meadows  at  eight  thousand 
feet  elevation.  Douglas  spruces,  silver  and  fox-tail  pines 
gave  wooded-charm  and  the  silence  and  serenity  of  the 
mountain  heights  filled  the  soul  with  restful  calm.  Pass- 
ing over  to  Freeman  Creek  they  started  a  cinnamon 
bear,  but,  as  neither  gun  nor  camera  were  available,  they 
left  him  alone.  There  are  many  sequoias  along  this 
creek,  many  of  them  lying  prostrate,  felled  in  some  giant 
conflict  of  Nature's  forces  in  ages  gone  by. 

At  Lloyd  Aleadows  they  found  a  spring  of  sparkling 
soda  water  —  one  of  many  such  in  California,  the  king 
of  which  is  the  celebrated  Shasta  Springs  in  the  Sacra- 
mento Canyon,  on  the  way  to  Mt.  Shasta  —  where  they 
camped    in    company    with    an    old    mountaineer    who 


116     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

"  loaded  them  up "  with  yarns  of  experiences  in  the 
Sierras  nearly  fifty  years  ago. 

After  seven  days  out  they  reached  Little  Kern  Lake 
in  Kern  Canyon.  Here  excellent  fishing  tempted  them, 
and  they  remained  awhile,  coming  in  touch  with  a  uni- 
versity youth  who  had  charge  of  the  supplies  of  the 
Sierra  Club,  ready  for  their  forthcoming  mountain 
"  hike."  Here  the  solitude  was  so  primeval  that  they 
dofifed  their  clothes  and  laundered  them  in  rude  and 
primitive  fashion. 

The  divide  between  Little  Kern  and  Big  Kern  Lakes 
has  often  been  described  by  visitors  —  the  purple  blue 
of  the  water  surrounded  by  the  deep  and  varied  greens 
of  the  trees,  with  the  winding,  frothy-white  waters  of 
the  Kern  in  one  direction  and  in  the  other  the  storm- 
swept  slopes  and  summits  of  the  Kaweah  Peaks,  and 
the  gaunt,  gray  rock  that  denotes  Harrison  Pass. 

From  this  point  they  back-trailed  to  Little  Clare  Lake 
on  the  Great  Western  Divide,  which  lies  in  a  rocky  bowl 
on  the  rim  of  Soda  Creek  Canyon  at  an  altitude  of 
10,400  feet.  The  view  is  commanding.  Sawtooth  and 
Florence  Peaks,  Needham  Mountain,  flanked  by  deep 
canyons  and  bedecked  with  glacial  lakes,  give  majesty 
and  glory,  while  to  the  rear  are  the  gray,  snow-capped 
monarchs  of  the  Divide,  in  the  distance  the  black  and 
brown  bulk  of  the  Kaweahs,  while  further  away  is  the 
whitish  ridge  bounding  the  eastern  Kern  basin.  Two 
thousand  feet  below  Soda  Creek  sings  in  subdued  strains, 
while  the  snow  lies  sloping  down  to  the  rich  blue  of 
the  water  of  the  lake. 

The  next  day  found  them  on  the  banks  of  Soda  Creek 
and  camping  at  night  on  the  wooded  shores  of  Moraine 
Lake.  Near  this  is  Chagoopa  Plateau,  —  once  glacial 
lakes,  —  now  four  meadows  and  the  finest  fox-tail  pine 


On  Mountain  Trails  117 

forest  known,  watched  over  by  the  dominating  monarchs 
of  the  air,  the  Kaweah  Peaks,  13,816  and  13,728  feet 
in  altitude. 

It  is  on  the  trail  from  Moraine  Lake  that  one  gains 
the  full  majesty  and  glory  of  the  Kern  River  Canyon. 
Clarence  King,  Muir,  and  Jordan  and  a  score  others  have 
written  of  it,  Keith  and  Jorgensen  have  painted  it,  and 
yet  few  know  of  its  rare  sublimity.  Resting  one  night 
at  Junction  Meadow,  the  trail-makers  climbed  the  rim 
of  the  Kern-Kaweah  Canyon,  from  which  the  canyon 
begins,  running  back  seven  miles,  flanked  by  peaks  12,500 
to  13,500  feet  high,  the  walls  brilliantly  coloured  and 
with  melted  snow  dropping  in  silvery  threads  1,500  and 
more  feet.  The  floor  of  the  canyon  is  dotted  here  and 
there  with  glacial  lakes,  adding  attractiveness  to  the 
pines  that  abound.  This  is  deemed  by  many  a  real  rival 
to  the  Yosemite. 

The  next  day  there  was  only  the  faintest  suggestion 
of  a  trail  and  sometimes  that  failed,  hence  they  guessed 
their  way  along,  past  a  dozen  or  more  tiny  jewels  of 
lakes  set  in  rocks  of  pink  and  green.  These  rocks  were 
smoothed  and  polished,  grooved  and  fluted,  mute  wit- 
nesses to  the  mighty  glacial  action  that  made  the  lakes 
and  sculptured  the  towering  peaks. 

Thus  they  wandered  and  climbed  taking  in  turn  South 
American  Lake,  at  the  foot  of  Harrison  Pass,  with  its 
two  peaks,  13,983  and  13,625  feet  high,  where  a  most 
marvellous  view  of  the  High  Sierras  is  to  be  obtained. 
There  are  fifty  peaks,  varying  in  altitude  from  13,500 
to  14,500  feet,  in  this  immediate  vicinity,  the  very  ulti- 
mate of  mountain  perfection  in  the  United  States,  and 
rivalling  the  Alps  in  their  stupendous  majesty. 

And  here,  though  they  had  many  days  more  of  climb- 
ing, up  and  down,  of  fishing  and  photographing,  of  swim- 


118     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ming  in  icy  water,  of  sliding  on  the  faces  of  incipient 
glaciers,  of  losing  their  burros  and  finding  them,  of  packs 
dropping  ofT  at  the  most  inopportune  times,  and  many- 
other  adventures,  I  must  leave  them,  though  it  may 
interest  the  reader  to  learn  that  they  finally  wound  up 
their  trip  in  the  Yosemite  itself,  having  completed  a 
most  delightful  and  joyful  round. 

Just  as  a  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  variety  afforded 
let  me  but  refer  to  two  more  regions,  each  of  which  has 
its  own  chapter  elsewhere  in  these  pages.  These  are 
Lake  Tahoe  and  the  Yosemite.  At  the  former  there  is 
the  trail  by  the  side  of  the  lake,  over  rolling  foothills 
and  through  virgin  forest,  by  glacial  lake  to  the  summit 
of  Mt.  Watson;  by  the  Truckee  River,  up  by  Bear  Creek 
and  Deer  Park  Springs  to  Ellis  Peak,  Squaw  Peak,  and 
half  a  hundred  glacial  lakes  beyond,  or  down  into  the 
rugged,  tree-clad,  picturesque  deer  retreats  of  the  Rubi- 
con River;  up  a  score  of  mountains,  —  Tallac,  Job's, 
Job's  Sister,  Freels.  Richardson,  Jacks,  Dicks,  Agassiz, 
Pyramid,  etc.,  —  all  magnificent  monarchs  of  the  Sier- 
ras, afifording  Pisgah  landscapes  of  mountains  and  can- 
yons, clothed  in  forests  of  luxuriantly  growing  pines  and 
firs.  On  the  eastern  side  of  the  Lake  there  are  Genoa 
and  Marlette  Peaks,  each  offering  a  wonderful  view 
of  the  Nevada  mountain  and  desert  country  as  well  as 
of  the  High  Sierras. 

Then  at  the  Yosemite  there  are  near-by  and  "  civil- 
ized "  trails,  easy  enough  for  a  blind  man  or  an  unac- 
companied child  of  ten.  hardier  climbs  up  Tenaya  Can- 
yon, to  Cloud's  Rest,  Mt.  Starr  King  and  lesser  peaks 
beyond,  and  then  the  whole  sweep  of  the  Sierras  inviting 
man  to  such  wholesome  and  strenuous  exercises,  as  those 
of  John  Muir,  Clarence  King,  and  Smeaton  Chase, 
quoted  elsewhere. 


On  Mountain  Trails  119 

The  mountains  of  California  are  a  godlike  gift  in  their 
large  generosity,  large  content  for  men  of  diverse  minds, 
and  the  trails  are  man's  encouragement  to  other  men 
to  arise,  enter  in,  seek  and  find. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE    CALIFORNIA    COAST 

The  California  Coast  is  unequalled  by  any  similar 
stretch  of  coast  in  the  civilized  world.  England,  Great 
Britain,  indeed,  though  an  island,  does  not  have  so  re- 
markably varied  a  coast,  considering  scenery  and  climate. 
Practically  a  thousand  miles  in  extent,  it  reaches  from 
the  33rd  parallel  on  the  Mexican  boundary  to  the  42nd 
on  the  Oregon  line. 

There  have  not  been  wanting  writers  in  the  past ;  not 
professional  writers,  but  travellers,  world-explorers, 
sailors,  who  have  given  vivid  word-pictures  of  the  Cali- 
fornia Coast.  Langsdorf,  La  Perouse,  Vancouver,  Simp- 
son, Dana,  Phelps  are  well-known  names,  and  earlier 
even  than  these  are  Cabrillo,  Vizcaino,  Sir  Francis  Drake 
and  the  sailors  and  padres  of  the  Mission  epoch,  when 
Alta  California  was  definitely  possessed  by  Spain  for 
colonization  purposes  and  the  Christianization  of  the 
Indians. 

What  a  wonderful  shore  line  for  one  State.  Is  there 
any  wonder  poets  have  sung  gloriously  about  it?  Yet 
they  have  not  said  a  small  part  of  the  truth.  Herbert 
Bashford  gives  us  one  picture  of  its  terror  in  his  On  the 
Cliff: 

"  Safe  are  we  here  on  the  cliff;   but  ah!   that  mad  shatter  and  crashing 
Brings  the  chill  tremor  of  fear,  the  short,  hard,  shuddering  breath; 

Look,  oh,  God,  look  beneath  us!    How  fearful  the  tumult,  the  lashing  — 
Lashing  of  crazed,  hungry  billows  that  clamor  for  terror  and  death." 

120 


The  California  Coast  121 

Yet  these  same  billows  roll  in  so  easily  on  the  sands 
of  twice  a  score  beach  resorts  that  in  the  summer  over 
a  million  people  take  up  their  residences  near  by  that 
daily  they  may  sport  in  them.  See  the  glad  throngs 
dancing  and  capering  in  the  waves  at  Santa  Cruz,  at 
Coronado,  at  La  Jolla,  at  Long  Beach,  Venice,  Redondo, 
Ocean  Park,  Santa  Barbara,  Oceano,  Pizmo,  Montara, 
Half  Moon  Bay,  Bolinas,  Crescent  City,  Eureka  and 
many  other  popular  resorts,  and  one  completely  forgets 
Bashford's  picture  and  thinks  only  of  the  quieter  moods 
of  the  Pacific. 

Many  days  the  Pacific  earns  its  name.  George  Ster- 
ling, in  his  home  at  Camiel-by-the-Sea,  has  learned  every 
mood  of  the  great  Sunset  Sea,  and  in  solemn,  stately 
phrase  has  written  of  these  placid  times : 

"  No  cloud  is  on  the  heavens,  and  on  the  sea 
No  sail:   the  immortal,  solemn  ocean  lies 
Unbroken  sapphire  to  the  walling  skies  — 
Immutable,  supreme  in  majesty." 

Solemn  though  it  often  is.  it  has  been  and  is  a  sea 
of  romance.  Those  queer-prowed  vessels  of  Cabrillo,  — 
caravels  they  called  them,  —  ugly,  clumsy,  crude  as  com- 
pared with  the  greyhounds  of  to-day,  sailed  on  her  placid 
bosom,  wrestled  with  her  stormy  moods,  groped  their 
way  through  her  enveloping  fogs  and  crept  up  north  until 
fierce  gales  drove  them  back  to  the  south. 

Sir  Francis  Drake  and  his  freebooters  sang  and 
shouted,  laughed  and  hurrahed,  as  they  captured  galleon 
after  galleon  carrying  the  proud  flag  of  Spain,  and  laden 
with  the  treasures  of  the  Philippines,  that  came  floating 
near  these  shores.  Here  Rezanof  brought  his  scurvy 
Russians  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  vines  planted  by  the 
Mission  padres,  and  here  Bouchard  scared  these  same 


122     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

padres  out  of  their  seven  senses  by  carousing  in  their 
sacred  temples  and  demanding  of  their  substance  for  his 
pirate  crews. 

Bret  Harte  put  into  swinging  verse  the  romantic  story 
of  Donna  Concepcion  Arguello  watching  for  the  return 
of  Rezanof's  vessel.  For  was  he  not  her  avowed  lover? 
Was  she  not  pledged  to  him  ?  How  pathetic  the  romance 
that  he  pictures  of  the  faithful  Concepcion : 

"  Looking  seaward,  o'er  the  sand  hills  stands  the  fortress,  old  and  quaint, 
By  the  San  Francisco  friars  lifted  to  their  patron  saint. 

Long  beside  the  deep  embrasures,  where  the  brazen  cannon  are. 
Did  she  wait  her  promised  bridegroom  and  the  answer  of  the  Czar; 
Day  by  day  on  wall  and  bastion  beat  the  hollow,  empty  breeze,  — 
Day  by  day  the  sunlight  glittered  on  the  vacant,  smiling  seas; 
Week  by  week  the  near  hills  whitened  in  their  dusty  leather  cloaks,  — 
Week  by  week  the  far  hills  darkened  from  the  fringing  plain  of  oaks; 
Till  the  rains  came,  and  far  breaking,  on  the  fierce  southwester  tost, 
Dashed  the  whole  long  coast  with  colour,  and  then  vanished  and  were  lost. 
But  he  came  not,  and  she  waited 
Until  hollows  chased  the  dimples  from  her  cheeks  of  olive  brown." 

Forty  or  more  years  she  waited,  hoping,  longing, 
unaware  of  the  death  that  had  befallen  her  lover,  until 
Sir  George  Simpson,  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company, 
visiting  San  Francisco,  happened  to  recall  the  great  Rus- 
sian's name  and  told  of  his  untimely  end.  But  poor  Con- 
cepcion, in  her  heart  the  Russian's  bride,  had  long  turned 
from  earthly  love  to  heavenly,  and  had  found  shelter 
in  the  convent  at  Benicia. 

Romance !  Do  you  not  see  the  vessels  of  the  United 
States  and  England  racing  up  the  coast  in  1846  striving 
which  shall  reach  Monterey  first  ?  The  Stars  and  Stripes 
is  ahead  and  the  raising  of  that  flag,  rather  than  the 
Union  Jack  of  Old  England,  determined  the  historic 
future  of  California. 


The  California  Coast  123 

Romance!  Do  you  see  the  vessels  of  all  nations,  laden 
with  eager,  rude,  impetuous  men,  cursing  the  restraining 
winds  and  baffling  fogs,  blessing  the  clear  days,  the  sun- 
shine and  the  favouring  winds,  as  they  urge  their  cap- 
tains to  carry  every  possible  stitch  of  sail  and  speed  on, 
on,  to  the  city  of  the  Golden  Gate,  beyond  which 
stretched  the  land  of  gold.  Here  were  the  flags  of  every 
land,  here  the  tongues  of  the  most  civilized  and  the  most 
barbaric  of  earth,  but  all  alike  speaking,  in  their  move- 
ments, the  same  tongue  in  their  eagerness  for  gold.  And 
think  of  many  of  those  ships  anchored  in  the  Bay  of 
San  Francisco,  bereft  of  their  crews  in  one  hour,  lured 
from  their  duty,  their  chosen  vocation,  by  the  tales 
told  of  the  wealth  to  be  had  for  the  digging  in  the  foot- 
hills and  placer  fields  of  the  Sierras. 

It  was  in  June,  1849,  that  these  ships  began  to  arrive 
in  San  Francisco.  Why  did  they  all  aim  there?  Why 
not  for  San  Diego,  or  San  Pedro?  The  site  did  not 
look  promising;  the  Mission  Dolores  had  no  great  attrac- 
tions and  Yerba  Buena  Cove  —  for  that  was  the  name 
San  Francisco  had  possessed  until  January,  1847  —  was 
backed  by  a  mass  of  sand  hills,  which  seemed  the  last 
place  in  the  world  upon  which  an  intelligent  people  would 
attempt  to  build  a  city.  Of  course  the  harbour  was 
there,  that  an  exuberant  Britisher  had  dared  to  declare 
was  large  enough  to  "  float  the  whole  British  navy  with- 
out crowding,"  but  there  were  a  score  of  other  places 
on  the  Bay  that  appeared  better  suited  for  a  city.  It 
is,  to  me,  at  least,  one  of  the  romances  of  the  California 
Coast  that  the  site  of  its  greatest  city  was  determined 
by  the  location  of  a  Franciscan  Mission,  a  building 
erected  by  the  Indians  and  their  priestly  directors,  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  reaching  the  spiritual  nature  of 
the  original  inhabitants  of  the  country.     I  see  in  that  a 


124     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

prophecy,  a  forecast,  a  providence,  and  hope  therefrom, 
the  large,  great,  tremendous  hope  that  San  Francisco 
is  ever  to  remain  a  city  that  will  appeal  to,  and  reach, 
the  spiritual  in  all  the  children  of  men  who  come  within 
its  influence. 

But  to  return  to  the  arrival  of  the  vessels.  In  June 
eleven  of  them  arrived ;  in  July  forty ;  in  August  forty- 
three;  in  September  sixty-six;  in  October  twenty-eight; 
in  November  twenty-three;  in  December  nineteen,  a 
total  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  in  seven  months. 

And  what  vicissitudes  had  they  not  passed  through. 
Read  the  personal  narratives  of  the  men  that  came  on 
some  of  these  ships.  Packed  on  deck  like  sardines  be- 
cause of  crowded  cabins;  short  of  water;  often  short 
of  food,  or  eating  wormy  pilot-bread  that  had  to  be 
rebaked  to  make  it  possible;  with  jerked  beef  in  one 
case,  at  least,  so  tough,  that  it  was  dragged  by  a  rope  in 
the  sea  for  forty-eight  hours  "  before  any  attempt  could 
be  made  to  cook  it  or  eat  it  without  cooking.  Sea- 
bathing may  accomplish  much  good,  but  it  never  yet 
made  tender  Mexican  jerked  beef.  Our  supply  certainly 
never  tempted  the  most  hungry  shark  in  our  course." 
On  a  diet  like  this  one  can  well  believe  what  one  man 
wrote :  "  I  would  have  been  thankful  enough  for  the 
mush  with  which  grandfather's  hogs  are  fed,  and  many 
a  night  would  have  been  glad  to  get  my  mouth  into  the 
dirtiest  puddle  that  Chapel  Street  ever  saw."  When 
these  ccaiditions  were  made  worse  by  storm,  by  the  roll- 
ing and  pitching  of  the  crazy  vessels  on  tremendous 
waves,  and  by  the  discomfort  of  rain  and  sleet,  spray, 
spume  and  the  actual  dash  of  angry  waters  we  can  imag- 
ine how  eagerly  these  men  looked  forward  to  landing 
in  the  desired  haven  of  San  Francisco. 

But  there  were  scores  of  cases  to  which  the  hardships 


The  California  Coast  125 

I  have  recounted  would  have  appeared  as  but  pleasant 
changes  in  the  day's  monotony.  One  party  chartered 
a  small  coasting  schooner,  provisioning  "  her  mostly 
with  rice  and  water.  After  thirty  days'  coasting,  with 
the  alternation  of  land  and  sea  breezes,  their  rice  being 
almost  entirely  exhausted,  they  found  themselves  but 
two  hundred  miles  farther  north  on  a  journey  of  some 
two  thousand  miles.  One  of  them,  who  was  a  Sabbath 
observer,  sickened  and  died,  and  was  buried  on  the  shore. 
The  small  party  then  divided,  a  few  continuing  along 
the  coast  on  foot,  while  the  rest  remained  on  the  vessel 
and,  after  untold  suffering  from  want  of  food  and  water, 
six  months  afterward  arrived  at  San  Diego,  where  the 
schooner  was  condemned  as  unseaworthy,  and  the  com- 
pany scattered,  making  their  way  to  San  Francisco  as 
best  they  could,  poor  in  pocket  and  broken  in  health  and 
ambition.  Those  who  landed  pressed  onward  on  foot, 
mostly  through  a  barren  and  desert  country,  devoid  of 
food,  water  or  game,  with  their  faces  resolutely  set 
towards  the  magnet  of  the  golden  mines.  When  game 
was  to  be  had,  even  were  it  hawk  or  buzzard,  it  was 
killed  and  greedily  eaten,  —  kind,  quality,  and  cookery 
not  being  considered.  Toads,  lizards,  and  crows  were 
alike  welcome,  and  any  sun-warmed  and  stagnant  pool 
of  water  was  considered  most  refreshing." 

It  requircB  a  powerful  imagination  to  picture  those 
vessels  anything  like  as  they  actually  were.  It  was  be- 
fore the  days  when  steamships  were  as  common  as 
railway  trains.  There  were  a  few,  of  course,  but  the 
major  part  were  sailing  vessels.  Not  trim,  new,  hand- 
some, well-equipped  craft  specially  built  for  this  new 
and  important  voyage,  but  many  of  them  were  old, 
ragged,  unseaworthy  hulks,  leaking  at  every  seam,  that 
the  impatience  and  cupidity  of  men  had  rigged  up,  gloss- 


126     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ing  over  with  tin,  wood,  paint  or  even  canvas  the  too- 
glaring  deficiencies,  and  making  up  in  bunting  and  hurrah 
what  they  lacked  in  seaworthiness  and  comfort. 

And  lest  I  be  charged  with  gross  exaggeration  let  me 
give  one  quotation,  out  of  a  hundred  I  might  otter, 
in  regard  to  the  subject.  Willard  B.  Farwell,  writing 
in  The  Century,  of  August,  189 1,  after  describing  the 
vessel  his  party  bought  in  1849  to  reach  California  in, 
and  telling  of  their  being  becalmed  near  the  equator, 
says: 

"  Some  three  miles  away  to  the  northw^estward  was 
another  ship,  which  by  her  rig  was  unmistakably  an 
American  craft.  Yet  so  f^at  was  the  calm  that  her  sig- 
nals hung  idly  against  the  halyards.  A  boat  was  low- 
ered, and  a  party  of  us  started  for  an  equatorial  visit 
to  the  stranger.  She  proved  to  be  the  Aurora  from 
Nantucket,  an  old  whaler,  worm-eaten  and  dilapidated 
in  her  upper  works,  sorely  afiflicted  with  dry-rot,  and 
looking  as  though  she  would  not  last  to  reach  Cape  Horn, 
much  less  to  round  that  formidable  point  and  complete 
her  voyage.  Compared  to  the  Edivard  Everett  she  was 
a  crazy  old  tub  indeed.  Months  afterward,  when  our 
anchor  was  let  go  in  the  harbour  of  San  Francisco  we 
found  ourselves  within  hailing  distance  of  this  same 
old  '  blubber-hunter,'  which  had  made  the  port  nearly 
two  weeks  in  advance  of  us !  She  was  the  type  of  a 
class  of  vessels  that  were  pressed  into  service  during 
the  California  excitement,  not  one  of  which  was  regarded 
as  any  longer  seaworthy,  but  every  one  of  which  even- 
tually made  the  voyage  in  safety,  many  entering  ports 
with  pumps  going,  and  running  directly  upon  the  mud- 
flats of  San  Francisco  harbour,  only  to  be  used  as  store- 
ships  or  broken  up  by  the  old  junk  men  for  firewood, 
or  for  the  old  iron  and  the  rigging  that  remained." 


The  California  Coast  127 

It  should  not  be  forgotten,  too,  that  the  CaHfornia 
Coast  used  to  be  the  scene  of  whale-fishing  on  a  fairly 
large  scale.  Captain  Beechey  in  1826  reported  that  he 
found  seven  whalers  anchored  at  Sausalito,  where  they 
obtained  fresh  water,  and  cut  firewood  from  Angel 
Island.  That  whales  were  not  nnplentiful  is  revealed  by 
the  fact  that  Julius  H.  Pratt  asserts  that  in  1849  he 
counted,  off  the  coast  of  Lower  California,  in  one  day, 
"  a  hundred  and  twenty  whales  of  different  kinds,  one 
of  which,  about  seventy-five  or  eighty  feet  long,  swam 
just  across  our  bow." 

In  1855  there  were  over  five  hundred  vessels  engaged  # 
in  whaling  in  the  North  Pacific,  and  Monterey  had  its 
share  of  the  business.  The  entrance  yard  to  the  Mission 
in  the  city  of  Monterey  is  paved  with  the  vertebrae  of 
whales,  and  ^^'hen  I  first  used  to  visit  the  quaint  old  city, 
before  it  had  begun  to  put  on  modern  airs,  there  were 
several  pairs  of  whale's  jawbones,  projecting  in  the  air 
like  the  ladder  poles  of  a  pueblo  Indian's  kiz'a,  used  as 
gate  posts.  To  this  day  schools  of  whales  are  often 
seen  and  encountered  in  Monterey  Bay  and  elsewhere 
on  the  coast,  their  spouting  attracting  passengers  cross- 
ing to  Santa  Catalina  Island.  A  few  years  ago  a  mon- 
ster whale  came  ashore  at  Long  Beach,  and  its  skeleton 
was  preserved  as  a  curiosity  to  those  unacquainted  with 
the  size  of  these  gigantic  sea-mammals. 

The  fact  that  Russia  looked  with  longing  eyes  upon 
the  Coast  of  California,  early  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
has  left  an  extra  touch  of  romance  on  its  shores.  Rus-  y 
sian.  River,  Bodega  Bay,  Sebastopol,  Mt.  St.  Helena  are 
all  tokens  of  Russian  occupation,  and  the  ruins  of  Fort 
Ross,  in  Sonoma  County,  but  sixty  miles  north  of  San 
Francisco  is  proof  that  they  had  some  dreams  of  pos- 
session or  empire.     It  may  be  well  here  to  note  that  the 


128     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

original  Russian  name  for  the  Russian  River  was  Slavi- 
anka.  Fort  Ross  was  built  in  1812,  as  a  fortified  tra- 
ding-post of  the  Russian-American  Fur  Company.  It 
originally  had,  or  was  intended  to  have,  forty  cannon, 
and  there  can  be  little  question  but  that  it  was  Russia's 
intention  to  use  it  as  a  base  for  holding  the  northern 
part  of  California  against  the  claims  of  Spain.  The 
Spaniards  protested,  also,  later,  did  the  Mexicans,  when 
Mexico  freed  herself  from  Spain,  and  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  in  1824  the  Russian  government  pledged  itself 
against  any  acquisition  of  California  territory  south  of 
"  fifty-four  forty."  Nature,  however,  protested  more 
vigorously  than  Spain  or  Mexico,  and  so  efifectively  that 
in  1 84 1  Captain  Sutter  was  able  to  purchase  Russia's 
interest  and  the  Russians  retired. 

A  portion  of  the  twelve-foot  adobe  walls  still  remain 
but  the  walls  of  the  old  church  were  badly  shaken  in 
the  1906  earthquake.  The  roof,  with  its  quaint  cupola, 
are  intact,  though  the  walls  have  collapsed  and  allowed 
it  to  rest  upon  the  ground.  The  hewn  joists  and  rafters, 
spiked  together  with  hand-wrought  nails,  are  still  sound 
and  intact.  The  Commandant's  house  is  used  as  a  hotel 
for  the  few  chance  visitors  who  come  to  see  the  deserted 
glories  of  the  place. 

Was  there  no  romance  in  the  marvellous  hiding  of 
the  Golden  Gate  from  the  hunting,  curious,  eager  eyes 
of  discoverers  for  two  hundred  and  twenty  years,  as 
recounted  in  another  chapter? 

Even  earlier  than  that,  was  it  unromantic  to  see  the 
ease-loving  Indians  of  the  coast  construct  their  rude 
bidarkas  or  their  bolsas  (their  dugouts  and  tule  rafts) 
and  paddle  across  the  channel  to  the  island  beyond? 

And  even  earlier  than  this  was  there  no  romance  in 
the  coming  to  these  shores  of  the  drifting  tree-trunks 


The  California  Coast  129 

of  India,  that  somehow  reached  the  seas  of  that  Orient 
land  and  floated  out  far,  far  into  the  tropic  seas,  and 
then,  as  if  seized  by  some  fateful  hand,  slowly  but  surely, 
with  much  wavering  but  no  misgiving,  aimed  for  the 
Behring  Sea,  braved  its  ice  and  snow,  passed  through, 
and  finally  allowed  a  storm  to  carry  them  far  ashore  at 
Monterey,  there  to  take  root  in  drifted  sand  and  people 
the  peninsula  with  their  unique,  gnarled,  weather-beaten, 
wind-tossed,  storm-defying,  Time-conquering  cypresses? 
Judge  Richards,  of  San  Jose,  has  written  a  most  inter- 
esting poem  on  this  fact  and  a  legend  connected  there- 
with. 

There  is  romance,  too,  in  the  names  of  the  Coast. 
Beginning  with  San  Diego  on  the  south  to  Cape  Mendo- 
cino on  the  north  they  speak  clearly  of  Spanish  discov- 
ery, and  many  of  them  of  the  religion  of  the  Spaniards. 
Cape  Mendocino,  with  its  conical  sugar-loaf  rocky  point 
—  the  most  westerly  piece  of  land  of  the  United  States 
save  Cape  Flattery,  on  the  Canadian  border  —  is  the 
one  name  that  remains  to  us  of  those  conferred  by  the 
first  and  original  explorer  of  the  coast.  It  was  in  1542 
that  Cabrillo  discovered  San  Diego  Bay,  which,  however, 
he  called  San  Mateo.  Beset  by  foul  and  contrary  winds, 
with  cloudy  weather  and  heavy  fogs,  an  unusually  early 
winter  adding  to  the  cold  and  discomfort,  his  vessels 
small  and  unwieldy,  one  being  without  a  deck,  the  crew 
worn  and  disheartened  by  the  privations  and  sufferings 
they  had  already  undergone,  it  reveals  the  pluck  and 
determination  possessed  by  these  early  explorers  that 
they  stuck  to  their  task  as  long  as  they  did.  We  read 
in  their  log  of  "  winds  from  the  north-northwest,  which 
did  not  let  them  carry  a  palm  of  sail,"  of  a  great  storm 
which  "  struck  them  from  the  southwest  and  the  south- 
southwest  with  rain  and  dark  cloudy  weather,"  and  that 


130     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


"  the  Sunday  following  the  tempest  fell  upon  them  with 
much  greater  violence."  Later  "  the  wind  shifted  to 
the  southeast  with  great  fury,  and  the  seas  came  from 
many  parts,  which  harassed  them  much,  and  broke  over 
the  ships,  which,  not  having  decks,  if  God  should  not 
succor  them,  they  could  not  escape.  .  .  .  They  suf- 
fered also  in  provisions,  as  they  had  only  biscuit,  and 
that  damaged." 

For  the  winter  they  lay  by  at  the  Island  of  San  Miguel, 
—  one  of  the  Channel  Islands,  —  and  there,  on  the  3rd 
I  day  of  January,  1543,  ''departed  from  this  life  Juan 
Rodriguez  Cabrillo,  captain  of  the  said  ships,  from  a 
fall  which  he  had  on  the  same  island  at  the  former  time 
when  they  were  there,  by  which  he  broke  an  arm  near 
the  shoulder."  Yet  even  in  the  face  of  certain  death 
he  was  dauntless  and  undismayed.  The  narrator  tells 
us  "  he  charged  them  much,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  that 
they  should  not  give  up  the  discovery,  as  far  as  possible, 
*  of  all  that  Coast." 

Poor  Cabrillo!  His  work  unfinished,  slain  by  an 
accident,  buried  in  the  sands  of  wind-swept  San  Miguel, 
no  man  to  this  day  knowing  where.  Fate  seemed  to  deal 
hardly  with  him,  for,  one  hundred  and  sixty  years 
later,  when  Vizcaino  sailed  up  the  coast  he  renamed  most 
of  the  points  and  places  named  by  Cabrillo  and  thus 
stole  from  him  that  honour  so  legitimately  belonging 
to  him.  The  Sierra  Nevadas  were  not  renamed.  Cape 
Mendocino  was  discovered  and  named  after  Cabrillo's 
death  and  that  name  holds  to  this  day.  But  as  a  rule 
Vizcaino  made  a  clean  sweep,  and  most  of  the  names 
used  to-day  were  given  by  him.  He  followed  the  old 
Spanish  custom  of  bestowing  the  name  of  the  saint  of 
'  the  day  upon  the  place  reached  on  that  day.  This  is 
the  source  of  the  beautiful  and  romantic  Spanish  nomen- 


The  California  Coast  131 

clature  along  the  coast,  which  even  the  most  rabid  hater 
of  Spain  and  popery  must  acknowledge'  is  far  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  the  rude,  vulgar,  and  often  disgusting  names 
applied  by  the  gold  seekers  of  '49. 

The  Viceroy  of  New  Spain,  under  whose  direction 
Vizcaino  sailed,  was  Don  Luis  de  Velasco,  Count  of 
]\Ionte  Rey,  and  in  his  honour  the  Bay  of  Monterey  was 
named,  but  Santa  Catalina  was  named  because  it  was 
on  her  day  that  Vizcaino  first  saw  it.  So  with  San 
Pedro,  Point  Concepcion  and  the  rest.  To  those  famil- 
iar with  the  Catholic  calendar  the  progress  of  the  expe- 
dition is  clear. 

For  instance,  they  sailed  into  San  Diego  Bay  Novem-  f 
ber  10,  1603.  Vizcaino's  flagship  was  named  San  Diego, 
and  the  saint's  day  was  November  12th,  so  he  stretched 
a  point  in  the  slight  discrepancy  in  time  and  named  the 
bay  after  the  patron  saint  of  Spain,  San  Diego.  The 
island  of  San  Clemente  (St.  Clement)  was  sighted  on, 
and  named  after,  the  saint's  day,  November  23rd ;  Santa 
Catalina  (St.  Catherine)  November  25,  while  San  Pedro 
(St.  Peter)  was  the  bay  in  which  the  ship  anchored 
November  26th,  the  day  of  St.  Peter.  On  the  4th  of 
December  they  reached  and  named  Santa  Barbara,  on 
the  8th  Point  Concepcion,  so  named  for  the  day  dedicated 
to  the  mystery  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the 
Holy  Virgin  Mary;  on  the  13th  they  sighted  the  range 
of  mountains  which  they  named  Santa  Lucia  (St.  Lucy)  ; 
while  four  days  later  they  entered  the  Bay  of  Monterey, 
so  named  after  the  Count  of  Monte  Rey,  the  Viceroy 
of  New  Spain  at  the  time,  who  had  authorized  the 
setting  forth  of  the  expedition.  The  small  river  Car- 
melo,  upon  which  later  the  beautiful  Mission  of  San 
Carlos  Borromeo  was  to  be  established,  and  which  was 
to  be  the  sainted  Serra's  home  and  his  final  resting-place, 


132     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

was  so  named  after  the  Carmelite  friars  of  the  expedi- 
tion. After  a  rest  in  Monterey  Bay  they  sailed  north- 
wards again  and  on  the  6th  of  January  passed  the  Pimta 
de  los  Reyes  (the  Point  of  the  Kings),  named  from  the 
fact  that  on  this  day  are  honoured  the  three  magi  or 
wise  men  who  followed  the  star  to  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and 
who,  tradition  says,  were  princes  or  kings.  On  the  12th 
they  sighted  Point  Mendocino,  named  after  the  Viceroy 
Mendoza,  who  had  sent  Cabrillo  forth  on  his  voyage 
of  exploration  sixty  years  earlier;  while,  after  much 
buffeting,  they  reached,  on  the  19th,  latitude  42°,  in 
sight  of  a  white  point  near  high,  snowy  mountains. 
This  point,  the  next  day,  they  named  Cabo  Blanco  de 
San  Sebastian,  from  St.  Sebastian,  whose  day  is  Jan- 
uary 20th. 

At  this  time  the  head  winds  became  so  severe  and  the 
crew  was  so  reduced  by  scurvy  that  discretion  dictated 
their  return. 

Dana  made  the  Coast  of  California  for  ever  memora- 
ble in  his  Two  Years  Before  the  Mast,  that  universal 
classic  of  "before  the  mast"  life.  Millions  of  people 
have  seen,  in  the  clear  light  of  his  vivid  and  California- 
stimulated  descriptions,  the  Coast  as  it  appeared  in  1835, 
before  any  literary  artists  had  wreathed  their  halos  of 
golden  glory  about  the  theme.  Santa  Barbara,  with  its 
bay,  mountains  and  old  mission  and  presidio;  the  way 
the  Sandwich  Island  sailors  of  an  English  vessel  landed 
through  the  breakers;  the  first  experience  at  loading 
hides  and  bags  of  tallow ;  the  storm  that  drove  them  out 
of  the  bay;  the  wind  they  experienced  off  Point  Con- 
cepcion;  the  way  the  Spanish-Californians  used  to  come 
to  the  Yankee  vessels  and  purchase  their  dry  goods  and 
groceries  in  the  cabins;  the  Mexican  presidios  of  San 
Diego,   Santa   Barbara,   Monterey  and   San   Francisco; 


The  California  Coast 133 

the  Indians  driving  their  oxen  in  the  heavy  and  clumsy- 
wheeled  carrefas;  the  disgust  of  the  sailors  at  learning 
they  might  have  to  remain  two  or  three  or  more  years 
on  the  California  Coast;  their  dread  of  the  southeasters 
that  made  anchorage  in  the  bay  of  Santa  Barbara  un- 
pleasant ;  their  unloading  hides  over  the  slippery  rocks 
at  San  Pedro;  and  then  the  arduous  task  of  pushing 
or  carrying  them  up  the  hill ;  Dead  Man's  Island ;  and 
many  other  things  are  made  to  pass  in  review  before 
us  like  a  series  of  moving  pictures.  Dana's  pen  was 
graphic  and  he  has  certainly  added  much  to  the  romance 
of  the  California  Coast. 

It  does  not  lessen  the  interest  with  which  it  is  viewed 
to  recall  that  it  was  Dana's  powerful  and  realistic  descrip- 
tion of  the  cruel  whipping  given  to  two  of  his  sailor 
companions  off  the  California  Coast  that  was  one  of 
the  chief  factors  in  changing  the  law  and  prohibiting  this 
barbarous  practice.  Like  the  novel  Ramona,  that  in- 
fluenced the  heart  of  the  nation  to  a  greater  kindliness 
towards  the  Indian,  Tzvo  Years  Before  the  Mast  led  to 
a  general  demand  throughout  the  whole  country  for  a 
more  humane  treatment  of  sailors. 

There  is  humour,  as  well  as  romance,  in  the  change 
that  has  occurred  on  the  Coast  since  Dana's  day. 
When  the  sailors  learned  they  were  likely  to  be  detained 
longer  than  they  expected  he  wrote :  "  Here  we  were, 
in  a  little  vessel,  with  a  small  crew,  on  a  half-civilized 
coast,  at  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  with  a  prospect  of 
remaining  an  indefinite  period,  two  or  three  years  at 
the  least.  When  we  left  Boston  we  supposed  that  it  was 
to  be  a  voyage  of  eighteen  months,  or  tw^o  years,  at  most ; 
but  upon  arriving  on  the  coast,  we  learned  something 
more  of  the  trade,  and  found  that  in  the  scarcity  of  hides, 
which  was  yearly  greater  and  greater,  it  would  take  us 


134     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

a  year,  at  least,  to  collect  our  own  cargo,  beside  the  pas- 
sage out  and  home,  and  that  we  were  also  to  collect  a 
cargo  for  a  large  ship  belonging  to  the  same  firm,  which 
was  soon  to  come  on  the  coast,  and  to  which  we  were 
to  act  as  tender." 

The  italics  in  the  above  quotation  are  mine.  How 
would  Dana  feel  to  be  on  the  Coast  now?  Would  he 
regard  it  as  half  civilized  and  at  the  ends  of  the  earth? 
Little  did  he  foresee  what  the  future  of  this  Coast  was 
to  be. 

Another  remarkably  interesting  fact  about  the  Cali- 
fornia Coast  was  first  noted  by  Dana.  And  it  is  a  great 
tribute  to  his  accurate  powers  of  observation  that  he 
noted  it  and  deemed  it  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  com- 
mented upon.  He  says :  "  After  a  few  days  we  made 
the  land  at  Point  Pinos  (pines),  which  is  the  headland 
at  the  entrance  of  the  bay  of  Monterey.  As  we  drew 
in,  and  ran  down  the  shore,  we  could  distinguish  well 
the  face  of  the  country,  and  found  it  better  wooded  than 
that  to  the  southward  of  Point  Concepcion.  In  fact, 
as  I  afterwards  discovered.  Point  Concepcion  may  be 
made  the  dividing-line  between  two  different  faces  of 
country.  As  you  go  to  the  northward  of  the  point,  the 
country  becomes  more  w^ooded,  has  a  richer  appearance, 
and  is  better  supplied  with  water.  This  is  the  case  with 
Monterey,  and  still  more  so  with  San  Francisco,  while 
to  the  southward  of  the  point,  as  at  Santa  Barbara,  San 
Pedro  and  particularly  San  Diego,  there  is  very  little 
wood,  and  the  country  has  a  naked,  level  appearance, 
though  it  is  still  very  fertile."  ^ 

In  Dana's  day  there  were  few,  if  any,  lighthouses  on 
the  whole  Pacific  Coast  from  Cape  Horn  north  to  the 
Russian    possessions.      He    speaks    of    their   heaving-to 

1  Dana's  Two  Years  Before  the  Mast. 


..-r^-*^  : 


POINT   CONCEPCIOX    LIGHTHOUSE. 


The  California  Coast  135 


after  dark,  "  for  fear  of  making  the  land  at  night  on 
a  coast  where  there  are  no  Hghthouses  and  but  indiffer- 
ent charts."  Yet,  while  I  do  not  recall  the  date  of  tlie 
erection  of  the  old  Spanish  lighthouse  on  Point  Loma, 
it  seems  to  me  it  must  have  been  in  existence  at  that 
time.  It  still  stands,  useless  and  dismantled,  a  pictur- 
esque reminder  of  the  earlier  occupants  of  the  land. 

The  Life-Saving  Service  of  the  United  States  now 
reports  one  hundred  and  six  lights  or  lighthouses  of  one 
form  or  another  on  the  California  Coast.  The  first  is 
seen  as  the  seafarer  approaches  from  the  coast  of  Mex- 
ico. It  guards,  guides  and  warns  on  the  end  of  Point 
Loma  at  the  entrance  to  the  Bay  of  San  Diego. 

Another  interesting  light  is  that  of  Point  Concepcion 
where  the  "  nose  "  on  its  upper  side  receives  the  cold, 
foggy  breezes  of  the  north,  and  on  the  lower  the  warm 
and  caressing  winds  of  the  south,  for  the  coast  here 
makes  an  almost  right-angle  to  the  east,  ere  it  proceeds 
on  its  southward  way  again. 

A  whole  book  as  large  as  this  could  be  written  on  the 
California  lighthouses,  the  romance  and  picturesqueness 
of  their  location,  their  storms,  their  calms,  their  outlooks, 
and  the  experiences  of  their  keepers,  and  it  would  cer- 
tainly be  a  book  of  thrills,  as  well  as  instruction,  were 
such  an  one  prepared. 

If  one  desires  to  read  romance  in  connection  with  the 
Coast  of  California  let  him  pick  up  any  one  of  the  Re- 
ports of  the  Life-Saving  Service  during  the  years  it  has 
operated  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Stories  of  thrilling  wrecks 
and  more  thrilling  rescues,  where  men  and  women  were 
"  snatched  from  the  jaws  of  death,"  appear  again  and 
again.  Here  are  the  mere  skeleton  outlines  of  stories 
which  appear  in  the  19 13  volume.  August  29,  19 12,  a 
garbage  'barge,    Lillebonne,    from    Oakland,    was   over- 


136     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

turned  by  a  strong  wind  and  rough  sea  a  mile  offshore 
from  the  Point  Bonita  Station.  Seven  men  were  saved 
after  a  great  fight,  but  one  poor  fellow  lost  his  life, 
having  gone  down  into  the  hold  just  before  the  barge 
capsized. 

January  28,  1913,  the  coasting  steamer  Samoa  ran 
ashore  in  a  dense  fog  on  Point  Reyes.  All  the  twenty- 
one  men  of  her  crew  were  saved  by  the  prompt  and 
brave  action  of  the  surf-men  of  the  Point  Reyes  Life- 
Saving  Station. 

Three  times  Mr.  Adolph  Sutro  has  been  rescued  from 
possible  death,  owing  to  accidents  to  his  hydro-aeroplane, 
when  operating  on  or  near  San  Francisco  Bay.  On  the 
1 8th  of  May  six  men,  who  had  gone  to  gather  mussels, 
on  Mussel  Rock,  five  miles  down  the  coast  from  the 
South  Side  Station,  were  discovered  to  be  marooned. 
It  required  skilled  and  brave  work  to  rescue  these  men 
on  a  line,  through  the  breakers,  in  the  dark. 

In  the  past  ten  years  there  have  been  two  hundred 
and  three  vessels  of  different  kinds  stranded  on  the  Cali- 
fornia Coast,  and  in  every  case  there  were  elements  of 
exciting  romance. 

This  phase  is  not  a  pleasant  one  to  dwell  upon,  — 
the  wrecking  of  vessels,  the  destruction  of  property,  the 
loss  of  precious  human  life.  Yet  it  is  not  individual 
to  California.  There  is  no  coast  in  the  world  that  has 
no  storms.  This  has  no  more  than  its  share,  and  the 
advance  of  science  in  the  invention  of  more  and  more 
delicate  instruments,  susceptible  to  all  changes,  will  make 
it  certain,  by  and  by,  that  every  vessel  will  sound  its 
own  warning  when  it  is  unexpectedly  approaching  shore, 
whether  in  the  impenetrable  darkness  of  the  night  or  a 
dense  fog.  Means,  also,  may  be  found  to  enable  a  ves- 
sel to  hold  its  own  in  the  heart  of  the  fiercest  storms. 


The  California  Coast  137 

In  the  meantime  one  cannot  help  but  feel  his  heart 
stirred  if  he  chances  to  be  on  the  Coast  when  a  terrible 
storm  is  raging.  He  gazes  with  awe  upon  the  power 
that  moves  millions  of  tons  of  water  in  gigantic,  irre- 
sistible waves.  He  listens  to  the  roaring  of  the  surf, 
and  the  hoarse  shouting  of  the  winds  and  the  shrieking 
of  the  gales  and  wonders  whence  they  all  come,  whither 
they  go,  and  what  is  the  purpose  of  it  all.  Then, 
almost  instinctively,  he  asks  himself:  What  mighty 
power  is  this  that  can  afiford  to  expend  itself  on  such 
tremendous  storms  and  ocean  turmoil?  What  is  the 
zvhy  of  it?  The  wisdom  of  our  commercial  and  cu- 
pidously  acquisitive  age  is  ever  prating  of  conserva- 
tion of  energy.  We  have  wrestled  with  the  problem  of 
the  lightning  until  we  have  harnessed  Jove's  bolts  of 
light  and  power  to  our  street  cars,  and  confined  them, 
like  the  Arabian  Nights'  genie,  in  a  bottle,  to  drive  our 
machines  for  sawing  wood,  hoisting  mud  out  of  river 
and  harbour  bottoms,  lifting  heavy  cars  of  rock  out  of 
mines,  and  a  thousand  and  one  menial  services.  Now 
men  are  grappling  with  this  "  waste  of  power  "  —  the 
sea-waves.  They  have  dotted  the  Pacific  shores  with 
their  water-wheels,  wave-motors,  current-fans  .  and 
"  thingamajig  what-nots  "  to  harness  this  power.  They 
have  dazzled  the  eyes  of  thousands  with  their  mirrors 
and  lenses,  seeking  to  capture  and  confine  the  solar  heat 
so  that  they  can  make  it  a  servant  of  man's  will  and 
caprices.  They  would  capture  the  wind-storms,  as  they 
have  the  waterfalls  and  mountain  streams  to  make  them 
turn  their  mud-wagons  and  drive  their  ploughs,  but  as 
yet  sun  and  wind,  wave  and  storm,  are  wild,  untamed 
and  free.  Will  they  ever  be  subject  to  man?  Who 
knows  ? 

The  earliest  expedition  to  the  Coast  of  California  on 


138     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  part  of  the  United  States  was  when  Commander 
Wilkes,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  was  ordered  by  Mah- 
lon  Dickerson,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  to  undertake  an 
extensive  exploration  of  a  large  part  of  the  world.  His 
fleet  visited  Madeira,  Brazil,  Terra  del  Fuego,  Chili, 
Peru,  the  islands  of  Polynesia,  including  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  New  South  Wales,  New  Zealand,  Oregon,  Cali- 
fornia, the  Philippines,  China,  and  home  by  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  The  expedition  covered  the  years  1838  to 
1842,  and  it  was  on  the  19th  of  October,  1841,  that  the 
Commander  reached  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco.  His 
reports  are  contained  in  several  finely  illustrated  volumes. 

The  settlement  was  then  Yerba  Buena,  and  Wilkes 
evidently  was  not  impressed  by  it,  for  he  says :  "  The 
town  was  not  calculated  to  produce  a  favourable  impres- 
sion on  a  stranger.  Its  buildings  may  be  counted,  and 
consist  of  a  large  frame  building,  occupied  by  the  agent 
of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company;  a  store,  kept  by  Mr. 
Spears,  an  American ;  a  billiard-room  and  bar ;  a  poop- 
cabin  of  a  ship,  occupied  as  a  dwelling  by  Captain  Hinck- 
ley; a  blacksmith's  shop  and  some  out-buildings.  These, 
though  few  in  number,  are  also  far  between.  When  to 
this  we  add  the  sterile  soil  and  hills  of  bare  rock,  it  will 
be  seen  that  Yerba  Buena  and  the  country  around  it 
are  anything  but  beautiful.  This  description  holds  good 
when  the  tide  is  high,  but  at  low  water  it  has  for  a 
foreground  an  extensive  mud-flat,  which  does  not  add 
to  the  beauty  of  the  scene." 

What  would  Commander  Wilkes  think  if  he  could 
sail  into  "  Yerba  Buena  Cove,"  and  find  there  the  mar- 
vellous city  that  occupies  it  to-day,  —  the  mud-flats  built 
up  with  sand  and  now  covered  with  magnificent  business 
buildings,  hotels,  factories  and  warehouses;  and  all  the 
palaces  of  the  rich,  the  more  modest  dwellings  of  the 


The  California  Coast  139 

well-to-do,  and  the  rude  hovels  and  shacks  of  the  poor, 
speaking  of  a  population  of  half  a  million  souls? 

An  interesting  vessel  sailed  up  the  California  Coast  in 
1846.  Had  a  modern  hydroplane  from  San  Diego  flown 
out  to  sea  and  hovered  over  her  sails  —  as  would  be 
possible  to-day  —  the  aerial  navigator  would  have  heard 
morning  after  morning  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs  floating  out  over  the  placidly  rolling  waves. 
Women  and  children's  voices,  too,  blended  with  those 
of  men.  Morning  prayer  was  offered  in  loud  and  fer- 
vent tones,  though  not  always  in  classic,  or  even  pure 
English,  and  there  were  few  days  that  passed  w^hen  ser- 
mons were  not  preached.  For  this  was  the  ship  Brook- 
lyn, bringing  to  California  "Bishop"  —  afterwards 
plain  Sam  —  Brannan  and  his  colony  of  Latter  Day 
Saints,  or  Mormons,  whom  Brigham  Young  had  sent 
as  an  advance  guard  to  people  and  possess  California. 

The  gold  discovery  shook  up  their  Mormonism  some- 
what, yet,  as  E.  G.  Waite  truthfully  says,  it  should  not 
be  forgotten  that  it  was  this  shipload  of  early  comers 
who  "  gave  to  San  Francisco  her  first  prayer-meeting, 
her  first  jury-trial,  her  first  local  advertising  and  her 
first  newspaper." 

It  was  down  this  Coast,  too,  that  the  romantic  and 
foolish  filibustering  expeditions  sailed  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  republic  in  the  Peninsula  or  elsewhere  in  Mex- 
ico. William  Walker,  the  man  of  Destiny,  sailed  from 
San  Francisco  on  the  15th  of  October,  1853,  and,  though 
he  had  but  forty-five  men  with  him,  ventured  to  capture 
just  forty-five  days  later  the  Mexican  port  of  La  Paz 
and  there  declare  the  Independence  of  Lower  California. 
The  independence  did  not  last  long,  for  Walker  an- 
nounced the  freedom  of  Sonora,  and  started  to  march 
across  the  Colorado  River  to  free  the  land  "  from  the 


140     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

attacks  of  the  merciless  Apaches."  He  was  driven  back 
by  the  hostihty  of  the  desert  as  much  as  by  the  Mexican 
soldiers,  reached  San  Diego  in  safety,  returned  to  San 
F'rancisco,  was  perfunctorily  tried  for  violation  of  the 
neutrality  laws,  and  as  everybody  foresaw,  was  acquitted. 
Lionized  by  the  adherents  of  the  South,  who  saw  in 
Walker's  ambitions  a  means  of  spreading  the  territory 
of  slavery.  Walker  soon  turned  his  attention  to  Nica- 
ragua, and  under  pretence  of  a  colonization  scheme, 
sailed,  with  fifty-seven  men,  from  San  Francisco,  May 
4,  1855,  for  Realejo.  By  a  series  of  remarkable  political 
moves  he  became  practical  dictator  of  the  republic  for 
a  short  time,  was  finally  ousted,  and  escaped  to  New 
York.  Of  his  tragic  end  I  have  no  space  here  to  speak, 
save  that  historians  generally  concur  in  the  opinion  that 
had  he  had  with  him  on  his  last  expedition  men  of  the 
rugged  temperament  and  daring  bravery  of  his  Cali- 
fornia recruits  his  history  might  have  been  written  dif- 
ferently. 

Even  in  later  days  Jack  London  has  added  a  stirring 
chapter  to  the  romance  of  the  California  Coast  by  his 
stories  of  his  boyhood's  experiences  on  a  sailing  vessel 
in  San  Francisco  Bay.  His  Tales  of  a  Fish  Patrol  are 
thrilling  and  exciting  and  suggest  a  life  little  known  to 
the  law-abiding  and  peaceful  citizens  who  have  their 
pretty  and  beautiful  homes  around  the  Bay.  In  John 
Barleycorn,  too,  he  makes  us  feel  the  thrill  he  himself 
experienced,  when,  a  lad  of  fourteen,  he  found  himself 
"  inside  his  first  ship,  a  smuggler,  accepted  as  a  comrade 
by  a  harpooner  and  a  runaway  English  sailor  who  said 
his  name  was  Scotty." 

Somehow  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  with  its  great 
San  Pablo  Bay  and  its  swift-running  Carquinez  Straits, 
have  never  been  the  same   to   me  since  I   read  of  the 


YELLOW  -  TAIL    SALMON'   AND    BLACK    SEA  -  BASS. 


The  California  Coast  141 

adventures,  real  or  fancied,  Jack  London's  genius  has 
made  me  see  transpire  there.  Who  could  help  feeling 
with  him,  when,  a  mere  lad  of  fifteen,  slaving-  and  toil- 
ing ten  hours  a  day  in  the  Oakland  cannery,  he  felt 
the  "  call  of  the  bay  "  and  responded  to  it:  "I  remem- 
bered my  skiff,  lying  idle  and  accumulating  barnacles  at 
the  boat-wharf;  I  remembered  the  wind  that  blew  every 
day  on  the  Bay.  the  sunrises  and  sunsets  I  never  saw ; 
the  bite  of  the  salt  air  in  my  nostrils,  the  bite  of  the 
salt  water  on  my  flesh  when  I  plunged  overside ;  I  re- 
membered all  the  beauty  and  the  wonder  and  the  sense- 
delights  of  this  world  of  water  denied  to  me." 

Then,  too,  while  I  do  not  believe  in  war  or  battleships 
or  navies,  I  felt  the  thrill  of  something  —  was  it  patriot- 
ism?—  when  the  Oregon,  built  in  San  Francisco,  was 
bidden  sail  down  the  California  Coast  and  all  the  length 
of  the  Pacific  shores  of  the  American  Continent,  down 
to  Cape  Horn,  to  hurry  and  join  the  Atlantic  fleet  in  its 
work  of  catching  Cervera  and  the  warships  of  Spain 
under  his  control. 

And,  later,  I  felt  the  same  something  when  I  saw  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  squadrons  —  stately  vessels  of  the 
line,  cruisers,  torpedo  boats  and  the  rest  —  sail  through 
the  Golden  Gate  into  San  Francisco  Bay,  past  Akatraz 
Island,  amid  the  huzzas  of  the  more  than  half  million 
spectators  crowding  the  heights  and  hills  and  vantage 
points  of  the  city. 

From  the  commercial  fisherman's  standpoint  the  Cali- 
fornia Coast  becomes  a  region  of  romance.  From  quiet, 
isolated,  little  known  spots  all  up  and  down  these  rugged 
or  peaceful  shores,  every  night  rude  fishermen,  in  rude 
boats,  using  rude  language,  often  meeting  rude  weather, 
sail  out  into  the  open  sea.  or  near  the  kelp-beds  where 
their  catch  is  generally  found.     Black-bass,  sea-bass,  bar- 


142     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

racuda,  sand-dabs,  bonito,  yellow-tail,  Spanish  mack- 
erel and  a  score  of  other  good  food  fish  are  brought  in 
by  the  ton.  Boxed  and  iced,  they  are  shipped  in  every 
direction  to  the  interior  towns  of  California ;  and  on 
the  menus  of  the  hotels,  clubs  and  homes  of  Nevada, 
Arizona,  Utah,  Colorado,  Wyoming  and  even  New  Mex- 
ico and  beyond,  California  fish  are  named  as  being 
served. 

The  sporting  fisherman  would  require  a  whole  book 
as  large  as  this  to  begin  to  describe  the  fishing  he  is 
able  to  enjoy  on  the  Coast  of  California,  at  Catalina  Is- 
land and  elsewhere.  To  such  an  one,  or  those  interested, 
I  refer  to  the  various  books  of  Professor  Charles  Fred- 
erick Holder,  whose  skill  and  experiences  with  the  rod 
are  equalled  only  by  his  fluent  facility  in  recounting  real 
"  fish  stories  "  that  thrill  and  excite  even  those  who  know 
nothing  of  the  sport. 

The  California  Coast  is  a  godsend  to  the  people  of 
the  interior.  It  is  their  Mecca  during  the  summer 
months.  They  flock  to  the  various  "  beaches  "  by  the 
scores  of  thousands,  and  these  have  sprung  into  exist- 
ence during  the  past  twenty  years  as  by  magic.  There 
are  so  many  of  them  it  seems  useless  merely  to  name 
them,  and  to  attempt  even  the  briefest  description  of 
each  one  would  occupy  far  more  space  than  can  possi- 
bly be  given.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  San  Francisco  has 
its  group,  reaching  from  Tomales  Bay  on  the  north  to 
Monterey  on  the  south,  and  including  Santa  Cruz.  The 
people  of  San  Luis  Obispo  have  their  small  group ;  Santa 
Barbara  is  sufficient  unto  herself;  Los  Angeles,  its  large 
group;  Santa  Ana  and  Orange  a  small  group,  while 
San  Diego,  Coronado,  Ocean  Beach  and  La  Jolla  form 
a  unique  group  all  to  themselves  at  the  southern  extrem- 
ity of  the  Coast. 


The  California  Coast  143 

Three  Coast  settlements  have  an  enviable  reputation 
among  artists.  These  are  Carmel-by-the-Sea,  where  a 
distinguished  colony  of  literary  people  and  artists  have 
their  summer  homes ;  Monterey,  where  still  others  of 
the  San  Francisco  group  of  painters  come  for  their  sea 
inspirations,  and  Laguna  Beach,  not  far  from  San  Juan 
Capistrano.  San  Juan  Point,  of  Dana  fame,  has  its 
group,  many  coming  down  for  the  summer  from  Los 
Angeles.  Of  course  Santa  Cruz,  Santa  Barbara,  San 
Diego  and  Coronado  all  have  their  attractions  for  artists, 
and  I  doubt  not  there  are  a  score,  a  hundred,  of  delight- 
ful places  where  artistic  inspiration  may  be  found. 

If  I  were  asked  to  state  how  many  real  harbours  the 
Coast  of  California  possesses,  my  answer  would  be  as 
follows :  There  are  two  great  natural  harbours,  those 
of  San  Diego  and  San  Francisco.  There  is  one  fair 
harbour  rapidly  being  converted  into  a  good  artificial 
harbour  by  the  United  States  government  —  that  of  Los 
Angeles  at  San  Pedro.  Then  there  are  fair  harbours, 
under  good  conditions,  in  Monterey,  Santa  Barbara, 
San  Luis  Obispo,  Bodega,  and  Humboldt,  the  best  of 
them  all  being  the  last  named.  Naturally  there  are  lesser 
"ports"  and  "bays,"  but  these  are  the  principal  ones, 
San  Diego  and  San  Francisco,  however,  being  harbours 
that  compare  favourably  with  the  noted  harbours  of  the 
world.     Each  is  more  fully  discussed  elsewhere. 

The  California  Coast  is  a  busy  coast,  nowadays,  for 
steamers  are  plying  up  and  down  all  the  time,  carrying 
passengers  and  freight.  Millions  of  feet  of  lumber  are 
brought  from  the  north  down  to  San  Francisco,  San 
Pedro  and  San  Diego,  and  thence  shipped  into  the  in- 
terior. And  when  one  thinks  of  the  trans-Pacific  steam- 
ers, shuttling  back  and  forth  to  China,  Japan  and  far- 
away Australia,  hopping  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands  and 


144     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  tropic  islands  of  the  South  Seas,  and  of  the  other 
fleets  that  steam  back  and  forth,  up  and  down  the  coast 
to  Mexican  and  South  American  ports,  and  then  contem- 
plates in  imagination  the  day  when  the  Panama  Canal 
is  opened  and  steamers  and  sailing  vessels  from  the  At- 
lantic Coast  and  Europe  add  their  activities  to  those 
already  here,  there  will  be  no  denying  that  the  Cali- 
fornia Coast  has  materially  changed  since  Sir  Francis 
Drake's,  or  Dana's  days.  Think  of  being  able  to  take 
your  stateroom  in  London,  Dunkirk,  Genoa  or  Constan- 
tinople and  never  leave  the  vessel  until  you  land  at  San 
Diego,  San  Pedro  or  San  Francisco. 

It  took  Dana  one  hundred  and  fifty  days  —  a  large 
part  of  half  a  year  —  to  sail  from  Boston  to  Santa  Bar- 
bara in  1835.  With  the  Panama  Canal  opened  it  can  be 
done  in  fifteen  days,  or  less. 

I  don't  know  whether  the  Canal  will  act  upon  one's 
conscience  as  Cape  Horn  used  to  do,  for  it  will  be  re- 
called that  Dana  said  it  was  a  current  expression  in  Cali- 
fornia when  he  was  here  that  "  a  man  must  leave  his 
conscience,  at  Cape  Horn." 

It  may  be  interesting  to  remind  my  readers  of  the 
great  market  these  deep-sea  vessels  provide  for  the  fruit, 
vegetables,  meats,  poultry,  eggs,  etc.,  produced  in  the  fer- 
tile interior  valleys.  And  this  not  only  for  what  the 
ships  themselves  consume  but  also  for  the  exchanges  of 
commerce  with  the  islands  and  countries  of  the  further 
Pacific  shore.  These  markets  undoubtedly  will  be  mate- 
rially enlarged  as  the  traffic  of  the  world  pours  to  and 
fro  through  the  Panama  Canal  and  California  indus- 
tries will  reap  a  rich  reward  in  the  greater  demand  for 
her  products  caused  by  the  cheaper  and  easier  modes  of 
transshipment. 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE    CHANNEL    ISLANDS 

Already  the  Channel  Islands  of  California  have 
become  a  definite  influence  in  the  life  of  the  people  of  the 
Pacific  Coast.  They  will  speedily  extend  this  influence 
until  all  the  travellers  and  pleasure-seekers  of  the  world 
will  come  under  their  allurement,  for  they  are  easily 
reached,  are  delightful  for  a  long  or  short  sojourn,  winter 
or  summer,  and  they  afford  unequalled  opportunities  for 
the  yachtsman,  hunter  and  fisherman. 

The  climatic  conditions  are  remarkable.  The  winters 
are  never  severe,  though  cool  and  bracing  as  a  New  Eng- 
land late  spring.  The  summers,  however,  are  not  hot,  as 
most  people  naturally  assume.  They  are  cooler  than  any 
portion  of  the  Atlantic  Coast  in  the  United  States. 

Charles  Frederick  Holder  has  well  called  them  "  Isles 
of  Summer,"  and  in  his  recent  book  ^  he  says :  "  The. per- 
fect climate,  in  all  probability,  does  not  exist,  but  these 
isles  of  summer  are  wild  flower  gardens  when  the  East 
is  snow-bound,  and,  winter  and  summer,  are  great  na- 
tional playgrounds  of  the  people.  In  winter  one  may 
bask  in  mild  yet  bracing  air.  and  in  summer  find  life  in 
the  open,  with  semitropical  surroundings,  yet  without 
extreme  heat  or  humidity.     This  cannot  be  better  illus- 

1  For  a  large  portion  of  this  chapter  I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Charles 
Frederick  Holder  of  Pasadena,  the  author  of  The  Chanvel  Islands  of  Cali- 
fornia, a  book  of  400  pages  and  many  illustrations,  and  to  his  publishers, 
A.  C.  McClurg  &  Company  of  Chicago. 

145  ^ 


146     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

trated  than  by  saying  that  from  May  to  October,  or  for 
six  months,  the  idler,  angler,  golfer,  sportsman,  or 
health-seeker  will  not  experience  a  squall  or  rainstorm  — 
comfortable,  beautiful  days  following  one  another." 

Stevenson  would  have  revelled  in  these  Islands  could 
he  have  visited  and  known  them.  Here  is  actually  a 
former  lair  of  pirates  and  smugglers,  and  customs 
officers  and  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  keep  contraband 
Chinamen  from  improperly  landing  on  the  shores  of 
California  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  these  Islands 
still  afford  opportunities  for  the  illegal  and  nefarious 
practice  of  "  running  in  "  Chinamen  whom  the  law  says 
shall  be  kept  out. 

The  knowledge  of  the  number  of  these  Islands  comes 
^  as  a  surprise  to  most  visitors.  Those  who  visit  San 
Diego  and  Coronado  often  see  the  three  largest  of  the 
Coronados  Islands,  lying  to  the  south,  while  those  at  Los 
Angeles  learn  of  Santa  Catalina  and  San  Clemente,  and 
in  Santa  Barbara  of  Santa  Cruz  and  Santa  Rosa,  but  few 
realize  that,  in  all,  there  are  twenty  Islands. 

San  Miguel  is  the  most  western ;  then  come  Santa 
Rosa,  Santa  Cruz,  the  Anacapas,  and  San  Nicolas. 
These  are  generally  known  as  the  Santa  Barbara  group. 
'  Further  down,  opposite  Los  Angeles,  known  as  the  Santa 
Catalina  group,  are  the  Santa  Barbara  Rock,  Santa  Cata- 
lina and  San  Clemente.  Then  south  a  hundred  miles  are 
the  five  Coronados,  while  off  to  the  west  are  the  sub- 
merged remains  of  two  islands  —  Tanner's  Bank  and  the 
Shoal  of  Cortes. 

The  geologists  inform  us  that  these  islands  are  the 
result  of  an  abortive  attempt  of  Nature  to  form  another 
Sierra,  doubtless  at  the  time  the  Coast  Range  was  up- 
lifted from  the  primeval  sea.  They  vary  in  size  from 
Begg's  Rock,  which  is  a  mere  rocky  mass  often  entirely 


The  Channel  Islands  147 

submerged,  and  Santa  Barbara  Rock,  of  a  few  acres,  to 
Santa  Catalina,  twenty-two  miles  long  and  with  an  area 
of  over  fifty  thousand  acres. 

Santa  Catalina  (or  Catalina  as  it  is  popularly  called 
by  Los  Angeles  people)  is  the  best  known.  For  thirty 
years  it  has  been  the  chosen  ocean  resort  of  the  southern 
metropolis.  Steam  and  electric  cars  convey  one  to  San 
Pedro,  where  the  great  harbour  of  Los  Angeles  is  being 
made,  and  from  whence  steamers  cross  the  eighteen-mile 
ocean  channel.  During  this  trip  one  sees  flying-fish  dart 
in  every  direction,  porpoises  sport  lazily  in  front  of  the 
vessel's  prow,  and  whales  are  often  seen  spouting  on 
either  side.  Generally  it  is  an  easy,  comfortable  ride; 
occasionally  the  sea  is  choppy  and  then  the  victim  of 
m-al  de  mer  would  better  stay  ashore. 

Passing  a  pinnacle  of  rock,  known  as  Sugar  Loaf, 
rounding  into  the  tiny  harbour  of  Avalon,  where  the 
town  of  the  island  is  located,  the  bay  a  perfect  glassy 
sea,  with  a  crescent  beach  backed  by  the  hills  which 
ascend  in  rugged  majesty  two  or  three  thousand  feet 
into  the  air,  one  feels  instinctively  that  here  is  a  place 
of  romance  as  well  as  enchanting  beauty. 

First  discovered  by  Cabrillo  in  September,  1542,  again 
visited  by  Vizcaino  on  the  28th  of  November,  1602, 
who  gave  it  its  present  name,  granted  by  Mexico  to  Pio  . 
Pico,  the  last  Mexican  governor  of  California,  deeded  by 
him  to  Nicholas  Covarrubias,  Sr..  one  of  the  picturesque 
dons  of  early  days,  sold  to  James  Lick,  the  founder  of 
the  Lick  Observatory,  then  to  a  California  boomer,  who 
cut  it  up  into  lots  in  the  boom  of  1885,  then  to  a  silver- 
hunting  English  syndicate,  it  finally  came  into  the  hands 
of  the  Banning  Company,  to  whom  its  present  develop- 
ment is  mainly  due.  Here  then,  in  its  history  alone,  is 
romance  galore.     But  if  one  only  knew  all  he  imagines 


148     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

might  have  happened  here!  Sir  Francis  Drake,  that  dar- 
ing harrower  of  the  Spanish  in  Good  Queen  Bess'  days, 
may  have  often  lingered  here ;  there  is  no  doubt  what- 
ever of  the  occupancy  of  the  Indians  v^hose  rites  were 
performed  in  a  temple  fully  described  by  one  of  the 
priests  of  Vizcaino's  expedition ;  the  rendezvous,  possi- 
bly, of  pirates  and  smugglers  both  in  Spanish,  Mexican 
and  later  American  days,  it  breathes  of  romance  as  the 
flower  gardens  of  the  South. 

But  the  romance  to  the  modern  visitor  lies  in  the  sea- 
lions  that  sport  upon  its  shores,  the  glass-bottomed  boats 
that  reveal  the  wonders  of  the  sea-bed  to  inquisitive 
eyes,  the  remarkable  fishing  that  has  made  Catalina 
famous  to  expert  anglers  the  world  over,  the  stage-ride 
over  the  rocky  ribs  of  the  island  and  the  open-air  Greek 
theatre,  where  a  concert  band  discourses  sweet  music 
during  the  season  and  —  remarkable  fact  —  where  those 
who  take  seats  are  not  allowed  to  annoy  their  neighbours 
with  their  godless  and  inane  chatter  —  a  thing,  I  believe, 
known  on  or  in  no  other  concert-giving  place  in  the 
United  States. 

The  hotel  is  fairly  good,  and  there  are  boarding-places, 
rooming-houses  and  tents  for  those  who  need  them. 
Many  residents  have  purchased  lots  and  own  their  homes. 
Almost  the  first  thing  one  does  on  arrival  is  to  go  out  in 
one  of  the  glass-bottomed  boats.  Dr.  Holder's  descrip- 
tions of  what  one  sees  are  eloquent,  graphic  and  accurate, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  is  doubtless  the  father 
of  this  modem  method  of  prying  into  the  secrets  of  the 
deep. 

"  The  entire  island,  nearly  sixty  miles  around,  is  lined 
with  a  forest  of  Nereocystis,  or  kelp,  a  huge  vine,  whose 
leaves  rise  and  fold  and  unfold  in  the  water,  the  abiding- 
place  of  countless  animals  of  all  kinds.    This  fringe  rises 


The  Channel  Islands  149 

ill  deep  water  ten  or  twenty  feet  from  the  rocks,  and 
inshore  are  myriad  forms  of  algae  of  various  colours. 

"  I  once  sent  a  diver  down  into  Avalon  Bay  and  fol- 
lowed him  around  in  a  glass-bottomed  boat.  It  was  a 
remarkable  spectacle  to  see  this  man  walking  on  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  pushing  his  way  through  the  kelp 
forest.  After  awhile  he  sat  down,  crushed  a  sea-urchin 
in  his  hand,  whereupon  the  small  fishes  gathered  about 
and  fed  from  his  palm.  Then  he  opened  a  wire  trap, 
which  I  had  provided,  placed  the  bait  inside  and  held  it 
for  a  moment,  or  until  a  number  of  fishes  (gold  perch) 
entered.  He  then  closed  the  trap,  and  seeing  game 
was  snared,  I  pulled  it  up.  Altogether  this  little  act 
beneath  the  sea  was  very  interesting.  Here  the  kelp 
forms  itself  into  a  beautiful  picture,  its  rich  olive  hue 
when  it  catches  the  sun  looking  not  imlike  a  great  band 
of  amber  against  the  vivid  turquoise  of  the  water,  as 
deep  water  is  so  near  the  shore  that  often  one  can  dive 
into  blue  w^ater  from  the  rocks. 

"  A  common  form  in  the  weed  is  the  giant  California 
starfish,  its  white  tubercles  against  the  pink  or  red  sur- 
face making  it  a  striking  figure  against  the  green,  red, 
or  purple  weeds.  Near  it  will  be  seen  the  large  Califor- 
nia sea-cucumber  lying  on  the  rocks,  prone  and  motion- 
less, and  near  by  the  long-spined  sea-urchin,  very  similar 
to  the  one  of  the  Florida  Reef,  though  not  so  long.  With 
it  is  a  small,  pure  white  sea-urchin  from  deeper  water, 
a  charming  contrast  to  the  green  weed  that  is  in  constant 
motion,  undulating  in  the  waves  that  affect  even  this 
quiet  bay. 

"  We  now  drift  over  a  rocky  area  where  the  water 
appears  to  be  a  pale  blue.  A  reddish-yellow  crawfish 
waves  its  serrated  spines  back  and  forth  from  a  crevice, 
and  passing  before  him  is  a  hideous  octopus,  searching 


150     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

for  crabs  or  anything  that  it  can  lay  its  tentacles  on. 
This,  without  question,  is  the  most  fascinating  animal 
to  be  seen  through  the  glass  window.  Timid,  constantly 
changing  colour,  hideous  t©  a  degree,  having  a  peculiarly 
devilish  expression,  it  is  well  named  the  Mephistopheles 
of  the  sea,  and  with  the  bill  of  a  parrot,  the  power  to 
adapt  its  colour  to  almost  any  rock,  and  to  throw  out  a 
cloud  of  smoke  or  ink,  it  well  deserves  the  terror  it 
arouses.  The  average  specimen  is  about  two  feet  across, 
but  I  have  seen  individuals  fourteen  feet  in  radial 
spread,  and  larger  ones  have  been  taken  in  deep  water 
ofifshore." 

It  is  on  this  trip  that  visitors  are  taken  to  see  the  sea- 
lion  rookeries  at  the  east  end  of  the  Island,  though  they 
are  to  be  found,  also,  on  all  the  islands.  These  interest- 
ing creatures  become  very  tame  and  are  capable  of  being 
taught  remarkable  tricks.  Many  of  my  readers  doubt- 
less will  remember  a  troupe  of  these  "  seals  "  which  per- 
formed astonishing  feats.  They  were  captured  on  Santa 
Cruz.  They  would  pass  a  ball,  no  larger  than  an  orange, 
from  one  to  another,  poising  it  the  whole  time  upon  the 
tips  of  their  noses.  Then  the  trick  was  done  with  a 
large  ball,  and  when  it  slipped  to  the  ground,  one  of  the 
seals  "  picked  it  up  "  by  placing  bis  nose  underneath  it, 
tossing  it  in  the  air  and  catching  it  on  his  nose,  and  thus 
carrying  it  securely.  They  also  played  with  burning 
flambeaux  in  reckless  abandon. 

They  are  now  protected  by  law,  though  occasionally 
a  few  are  caught  to  be  sent  to  zoological  museums 
throughout  the  country.  The  capture  is  generally  made 
at  Santa  Cruz,  where  the  sea  has  made  a  breach  against 
the  high  cliffs.  Watching  the  waves  the  boatmen  wait 
until  they  have  a  chance  to  jump  ashore.  The  "  catch- 
ers "  are  cowboys,  trained  to  the  use  of  the  riata.    They 


The  Channel  Islands  151 

drive  the  creatures  back  until  they  hnd  themselves  caught 
in  a  ciil  dc  sac,  when  they  rush  forward  and  charge  their 
Lormentors.  As  Dr.  Holder  says,  it  requires  no  little 
nerve  to  stand  and  face  the  open  mouths  of  the  roaring 
animals,  as  they  come  on  with  a  peculiar  galloping 
motion.  But  now  is  the  time  to  throw  the  riata.  As 
soon  as  the  noose  falls  over  the  lion's  neck,  or  elsewhere 
to  give  a  good  hold,  the  men  dash  for  the  rocks  where 
they  can  get  a  turn  with  their  ropes.  For  these  animals 
are  vigorous  and  tremendously  strong.  Some  break 
away,  biting  the  ropes  apart,  others  slip  the  ropes  ofif. 
All  seek  to  reach  the  water  and  "  the  men  have  to  be 
active  to  escape  the  horde  of  crazed  animals  (some  of 
which  weigh  one  thousand  pounds)  which  come  sliding 
down  the  kelp  toboggan.  xA.fter  a  long  struggle  the  sea- 
lions  are  mastered;  the  ugliest  are  gagged,  bound, 
thrown  over,  and  tow^d  to  the  boxes,  into  which  they 
are  placed.  Later  they  are  hoisted  aboard  the  launch 
and  carried  to  Santa  Barbara,  from  which  place  they 
are  shipped  to_  museums  or  zoological  gardens  all  over 
the  world.'' 

The  coach-ride  over  Catalina  is  one  of  the  famous 
rides  of  the  world.  Mr.  George  Greeley,  of  Pasadena, 
is  as  famous  in  his  day,  as  a  driver,  as  Hank  Monk  was  i 
in  Horace  Greeley's  day.  I  am  not  aware  that  there  is 
any  relationship  between  the  coachman  of  to-day  and 
the  great  editor  and  statesman,  though  it  is  a  little  sin- 
gular that  a  Greeley  no  longer  asks  to  be  driven  but 
drives  himself.  The  up  grades  are  always  taken  on  a 
walk,  but  when  the  descent  begins  the  passenger  would 
do  well  to  hold  on,  for  when  Greeley  lets  go,  —  or  per- 
haps it  should  be  written  "  lets  'em  out."  —  the  sensa- 
tion is  as  near  to  that  of  being  in  a  dirigible  balloon  that 
*'  bumps  "  something  now  and  again  as  anything  I  can 


152     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

suggest.  The  horses  enjoy  it,  so  does  Greeley,  so  does 
the  passenger  if  he  be  fearless  and  trustful.  This  is 
called  "  Catalina  tobogganing." 

But  it  is  the  fishing  that  has  made  the  chief  fame  of 
Santa  Catalina  and  the  other  Channel  Islands.  Dr. 
Holder  is  as  enthusiastic  an  angler  as  he  is  charming  as 
a  nature  writer.  When  he  first  came  here  nearly  thirty 
years  ago  he  found  it  to  be  the  meeting-ground  of  many 
great  game  fishes  caught  nowhere  else,  and  many  in- 
digenous to  the  locality.  He  found  the  leaping  tuna,  the 
long-finned  tuna,  the  yellow-fin,  the  white  sea-bass,  the 
leaping  swordfish  that  jumps  and  outfights  the  tarpon, 
the  yellow-tail,  and  many  others,  any  one  of  which 
would  alone  make  any  place  famous.  Being  a  thorough 
sportsman,  he  set  to  work  to  put  a  stop  to  the  indiscrim- 
inate slaughter  of  these  game  fish.  For  the  tuna  used 
to  be  "  harpooned,  caught  with  ropes,  shot,  perhaps  with 
bombs,  or  trapped  in  nets  of  rope."  In  1898  the  Tuna 
Club  was  organized  to  secure  fair  play  for  these  oceanic 
game  fishes.  In  his  first  annual  address  as  president, 
Dr.  Holder  said  among  other  things : 

"  A  year  ago  boats  left  Avalon  Bay  with  from  four  to 
ten  heavy  hand-lines,  and  tunas  and  yellow-tail  and  sea- 
bass  were  slaughtered  by  the  ton  and  thrown  away.  To- 
day by  your  example  not  a  boatman  of  Santa  Catalina 
will  permit  a  hand-line  in  his  boat.  All  use  rods  and 
reels  and  the  lines  specified  by  the  Club,  and  the  result  is 
that  few  fish  are  wasted,  the  catch  is  reduced  two-thirds, 
and  the  sport  is  enhanced  by  the  use  of  rod  and  reel." 

An  interesting  chapter  could  be  written  alone  on  each 
of  the  larger  and  smaller  game  fishes  of  the  islands,  and 
Dr.  Holder  has  written  many  scores  of  pages  giving 
accounts  of  the  various  catches  of  these  fish.  Some  of 
these  have  been  exciting  in  the  extreme. 


The  Channel  Islands  153 

Brief  references,  however,  to  the  other  islands,  must 
be  made.  The  Coronados  are  in  Mexican  waters,  though 
few  are  aware  of  that  fact.  They  rise  out  of  the  pearly- 
faced  sea  —  seen  from  Hotel  del  Coronado  —  like  three 
barren  mountains  from  an  alkali  plain.  One  of  them 
has  a  decided  resemblance  to  a  gigantic  figure  of  a 
recumbent  crusader  in  some  European  cathedral.  The 
one  to  the  northwest  is  known  as  Cortez.  It  is  four  hun- 
dred and  sixty-seven  feet  high;  that  to  the  southeast  is 
six  hundred  and  seventy-two  feet  high.  At  times  they 
appear  very  close  to  Hotel  del  Coronado. 

"  They  are  extremely  rough  and  barren.  One  has  an 
attractive  little  harbour  where  small  boats  find  refuge; 
but  the  cliffs  are  steep,  and  hard  climbing  is  necessary 
to  reach  the  summit.  Surrounded  by  forests  of  kelp,  they 
afford  a  refuge  for  myriads  of  rock-bass,  sheepshead, 
and  whitefish,  while  the  great  black  sea-bass  affords 
famous  sport  for  the  tourists  who  congregate  at  Coro- 
nado Beach  very  nearly  opposite  and  in  plain  view. 

"  On  the  rocks  seals,  sea-bears,  sea-lions  abound ;  and 
formerly  sea-elephants  made  the  place  their  home;  while 
numerous  birds  breed  here  including  pelicans,  gulls,  and 
petrels." 

"  Off  to  the  west  of  the  Coronados,  nearer  San  Cle- 
mente,  are  two  banks  named  after  Cortez  and  Captain 
Tanner,  U.  S.  N.,  which  have  aroused  much  speculation 
as  *  lost  islands.'  Many  a  romance  has  been  written  with 
these  banks  as  the  foundation.  Here  it  is  supposed  once 
stood  a  Pacific  Atlantis.  It  is  unfortunate  to  have  to 
destroy  so  alluring  a  tale,  but  the  stories  of  cities  and 
ruins  seen  down  through  the  clear  water  are  pure  fic- 
tion. The  only  population  of  the  bank  is  a  remarkable 
variety  of  fishes,  winter  and  summer;  indeed  the  At- 
lantis of  Cortez  and  the  Bank  of  Tanner  doubtless  are 


154     California.  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  winter  homes  of  many  of  the  summer  fishes  of  the 
inshore  islands. 

"  Tanner  Bank,  called  the  '  lost  island,'  covers  an  area 
of  about  fifteen  miles  in  a  west-northwest  and  south- 
southeasterly  direction,  and  is  about  four  miles  wide.  Its 
shallowest  portion  comes  to  within  about  one  hundred 
and  sixty  feet  of  the  surface  and  there  is  deep  water  all 
about  it  equalling  two-thirds  of  a  mile  in  some  places, 
showing  that  there  is  a  virtual  mountain  of  the  sea.  It 
can  be  found  readily  by  yachtsmen  and  fishermen. 

"  Cortez  Bank,  which  lies  to  the  south,  is  the  real  '  lost 
island,'  as  this  submerged  mountain  rises  from  water 
over  half  a  mile  deep  to  within  fifteen  feet  of  the  surface, 
and  has  an  area  of  about  twenty-five  miles  long  and 
eight  miles  wide. 

"  At  some  points  the  depth  is  six  hundred  feet,  but  the 
shallow  portion  is  over  Bishop's  Rock  at  the  southern 
portion  of  the  bank." 

San  Clemente  is  undoubtedly  the  overflow  of  a  great 
volcano.  There  are  vast  lava  beds  where  the  molten 
rock  poured  out  into  the  sea.  One  lava  mass  is  known 
as  Cape  Horn.  The  island  is  eighteen  miles  long  as  the 
crow  flies. 

"  Its  forty  or  more  miles  of  coast  is  mainly  of  rock 
covered  with  an  assortment  of  seaweed,  the  abode  of 
countless  shells  and  mollusks,  hence  the  haunt  of  vast 
numbers  of  fishes.  The  water  about  it  is  deep,  very  few 
shallows  being  found,  and  the  chief  anchorage  for  an- 
glers is  on  the  slope  of  the  island  mountain  as  it  drops 
away  into  deep  water,  or  upon  some  minor  peak  which 
branches  out  from  it.  This  ensures  a  vast  concourse  of 
bottom-feeding  fishes ;  and  as  the  island  is  well  offshore, 
in  the  line  of  fish  migration,  it  abounds  in  roam- 
ing  fishes,   which   come   in  large   numbers   and   spend 


The  Channel  Islands  155 

the  summer  on  the  feeding  and  spawning  ground  of 
their  choice." 

"  Next  to  San  Nicolas,  San  Clemente  is  the  most 
distant  island  from  tlie  mainland,  but  being  nineteen  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four  feet  high  (Mount  Cortez),  it  stands 
out  a  conspicuous  object  in  clear  weather  to  the  yachts- 
man. From  Point  Loma  near  San  Diego  the  run  to  the 
southeast  end  (Cape  Pinchot)  is  sixty  miles,  and  the 
course  would  be  two  hundred  and  eighty  degrees  true 
west,  one-half  south  mag.  from  Point  Loma.  From 
Santa  Catalina,  the  nearest  outfitting  point,  the  run  is 
about  thirty  miles  to  the  east  end ;  twenty  to  Rowland's. 
The  channel  is  rough  for  small  boats;  to  make  it  in 
comfort  the  start  should  be  made  from  Avalon  at  four 
in  the  morning,  thus  avoiding  the  strong  midday  and 
afternoon  wind  which  sweeps  down  the  wide  open  San 
Clemente  Channel  from  the  open  sea." 

Anacapa  is  called  the  "  ever-changing  island,"  for  it  is 
so  strangely  made  up  that  it  presents  consitant  changes  of 
a  most  peculiar  character  to  the  passing  vessel.  This  has 
led  to  many  conflicting  descriptions  of  it. 

"  It  is  doubtless  an  island  in  the  last  stages,  fighting 
for  its  life,  though  it  may  never  have  been  larger;  and  it 
is  interesting  to  land  and  note  the  ravages  of  the  sea.  It 
is  the  most  easterly  of  the  Santa  Barbara  group  and  is 
not  over  eleven  miles  from  the  main  land  or  Hueneme 
Light,  at  the  nearest  point.  To  all  intents  and  purposes 
it  is  one  island,  Anacapa,  but  when  you  land  or  cruise 
about  it,  near  inshore,  it  mysteriously  divides  itself  up 
into  three  or  more  islands;  doubtless  the  divisions  have 
been  eaten  in  by  the  gnawing  tooth  of  the  sea.  The 
island  forming  the  east  end  is  the  lowest;  about  a  mile 
long  and  a  fourth  of  a  mile  wide,  with  an  altitude  of 
about  two  hundred  feet. 


156     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

"  The  middle  island  or  link  in  the  Anacapan  chain  is 
nearly  three  hundred  and  twenty  feet  high,  one  and 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  long,  one-fourth  of  a  mile  wide. 
The  largest  island  lies  to  the  west.  Its  peak,  nine  hun- 
dred and  eighty  feet  high,  can  be  seen  thirty-five  miles 
offshore  when  the  day  is  clear  and  hot.  The  others  can 
be  sighted  from  fifteen  to  twenty  miles  away,  and  are  so 
flat  or  peculiar  that  they  appear  like  strange  exhibitions 
of  the  mirage.  The  little  channels  which  divide  the 
islands  are  tempestuous  places  in  storms  when  the  sea 
rushes  through  and  climbs  the  shores,  flinging  the  spoon- 
drift  and  flying  scud  far  into  the  interior  and  starring 
the  beetled  cliffs  with  incrustations  of  salt." 

On  the  way  out  to  San  Nicolas  from  Santa  Catalina 
one  passes  by  Santa  Barbara  Rock.  It  is  the  outermost 
of  all  the  islands,  fifty-three  miles  from  the  nearest  main- 
land or  forty-three  miles  off  the  west  end  of  San  Cle- 
mente.  It  is  "  about  eight  miles  long,  extending  east 
and  west,  and  has  an  average  of  three  miles  in  width, 
though  it  seems  more  than  that  when  butting  into  the 
wind  and  flying  sand.  In  the  centre  is  a  hill  or  mountain 
rising  to  an  altitude  of  about  eight  hundred  and  ninety 
feet,  a  conspicuous  object  from  many  miles  away." 

"  Just  as  at  San  Clemente,  there  is  at  San  Nicolas 
a  volcanic  cone  off  the  west  end,  a  most  conspicuous 
landmark  in  clear  weather,  but  extremely  dangerous  in 
thick  weather,  as  it  is  eic!"ht  miles  northwest  from  the 
west  point  of  the  island  and  is  forty  feet  high.  It  is  the 
top  of  a  mountain  rising  from  the  sea.  and  with  nothing 
to  warn  the  mariner  on  a  dark  night  except  his  presum- 
able knowledge  that  "Regg's  Rock  is  somewhere  about. 
There  should  be  a  bell  buoy  here.  You  can  see  Begg's 
Rock  ten  miles  off  in  clear  weather.  It  is  protected  by 
a  circle  of  nereocystis,  or  kelp,  and  a  reef  runs  north 


The  Channel  Islands  157 

and  south  from  it  almost  three  hundred  feet  in  each 
direction.  That  it  is  a  singularly  dangerous  peak  is  evi- 
dent from  the  fact  that  at  night  a  ship  might  take  a 
sounding  of  sixty  fathoms  and  five  minutes  later  crash 
on  to  Begg's  Rock." 

"  From  the  sea,  Santa  Cruz  Island  is  a  jumble  of  lofty 
hills  and  mountains,  with  deep  gorges  and  canyons  wind- 
ing in  every  direction.  Hidden  away  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  island  is  an  ideal  ranch,  with  a  pronounced  foreign 
atmosphere,  in  a  climate  as  perfect  as  that  of  Avalon  on 
the  island  to  the  south." 

In  the  heart  of  the  island  is  a  wonderful  valley  as  en- 
chanting as  The  Valley  of  Diamonds.  It  is  invisible  and 
unsuspected  from  the  sea.  Few,  even  of  Californians, 
know  of  its  existence.  Surrounded  by  stupendous  preci- 
pices and  rugged  mountains  slopes,  there  are  "  masses  of 
verdure,  rows  of  vines  laden  with  grapes,  acres  of  green 
gardens,  plume-like  eucalyptus  trees,  besides  walnut,  fig, 
and  others." 

Over  sixty  men  are  required  to  care  for  it.  There  are 
two  ranch  houses  covered  with  plaster  and  whitewashed, 
each  with  "  a  small  veranda  and  iron  balconies  wherever 
there  is  an  excuse  to  place  one.  In  front  of  each  is  a 
small,  old-fashioned  garden,  with  narrow  winding  walk, 
filled  with  fragrant  old-fashioned  plants." 

"  Not  far  from  the  house  is  a  little  chapel,  where  serv- 
ices are  held,  and  to  the  west  are  the  great  corrals  for 
the  horses,  the  shops  for  the  wagon-makers,  black- 
smiths, tool-makers,  etc. ;  for  nearly  everything  used  on 
the  ranch  is  made  here,  even  the  ornamental  iron  rail- 
ings. Over  the  big  stable  is  the  island  clock  —  a  peculiar 
sun  dial,  ornamented  by  some  of  the  men.  Beyond  are 
the  quarters  of  the  wine-makers  and  their  dining-hall. 
In  the  latter  is  a  list  of  rules,  in  Italian,  as  follows :  *  Do 


158     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

not  throw  bread  upon  the  floor.'  '  Eat  your  soup;  it  is 
nutritious  food.'  '  Do  not  criticise  your  neighbour  at 
meals.'     '  Do  not  talk  loud.'  "  etc. 

On  the  north  coast  at  Point  Diablo  is  the  famous 
Painted  Cave.  It  is  entered  through  a  striking  Gothic 
arch,  and  is  one  of  the  most  wildly  romantic  spots 
imaginable. 

"  It  is  well  called  the  Painted  Cave,"  says  Dr.  Holder, 
"  as  the  salts  have  dyed  or  coloured  it  in  a  fantastic 
manner,  in  brilliant  yellows,  soft  browns,  reds,  greens, 
and  vivid  white.  The  first  room  opening  from  the  sea 
may  be  sixty  or  seventy  feet  high,  the  walls  beautifully 
coloured  or  painted.  From  this  room  we  i^ushed  the 
boat  in  and  in  until  we  came  to  a  dark  door  opening 
somewhat  but  not  much  larger  than  the  boat.  As  we 
approached,  a  wave  came  rolling  in,  sobbing,  hissing, 
groaning  in  a  strange  uncanny  manner,  and  I  noticed 
that  as  it  swept  in,  it  almost  closed  the  entrance.  It  was 
not  an  alluring  prospect,  and  I  did  not  wonder  that  the 
men  displayed  so  little  curiosity.  There  was  but  one 
thing  to  do.  We  pushed  our  boat  as  near  the  hole  as 
possible  and  waited  for  the  next  roller,  and  as  it  filled 
the  entrance  we  pushed  in  immediately  after  it  and  got 
through  before  its  successor  came  along,  a  proceeding 
easily  accomplished.  At  once  we  were  in  almost  absolute 
darkness,  a  small  vivid  eye  of  light  representing  the  en- 
trance. It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  hear  some  sin- 
gular noises  in  my  day,  but  the  pandemonium,  worse 
confounded,  in  this  cave  under  the  mountain  of  Point 
Diablo  at  times  exceeded  anything  I  had  ever  heard. 

"  We  had  made  a  flambeau  of  waste,  and  tying  this 
to  a  stick  endeavoured  to  see  the  roof  or  ceiling;  we 
also  attempted  to  sound  the  cave,  but  all  to  no  purpose. 
I   should   imagine   it  was  one  hundred    feet  across.     I 


The  Channel  Islands  159 

found  on  the  side  a  ledge,  and  beyond,  and  under  this, 
were  other  caves  or  passages  through  which  the  water 
went  roaring,  hissing,  and  revenberating  in  a  series  of 
sounds  which  I  could  easily  understand  would  demoral- 
ize any  one  with  weak  nen'es.  There  were  two  ladies 
with  us :  Captain  Burnham  and  I  rowed,  and  our  fair 
passengers  were  animated  with  a  desire  for  investigation. 
I  am  rather  inclined  to  explorations  myself,  yet  I  could 
not  but  think  that  if  a  particularly  heavy  earthquake 
should  occur  at  that  time  and  lower  the  entrance  a  foot 
or  two,  we  should  be  imprisoned  beneath  the  mountain. 
As  I  stepped  out  on  the  shelf,  screams,  yells,  and  shouts 
seemed  to  come  from  the  dark  unfathomed  caves  beyond, 
and  all  the  evil  demons  of  this  sea  cave  apparently  sprang 
to  life.  At  the  same  time  a  particularly  big  wave  came 
in,  filling  the  entrance  completely,  and  as  it  went  rever- 
berating on  into  countless  other  caves,  it  released  myri- 
ads of  reverberations  and  echoes  until  the  sound  was 
deafening,  confusing,  and  appalling. 

"  The  cave  was  a  sea-lion's  den.  When  I  stepped  on 
to  the  ledge  I  dislodged  several  by  almost  stepping  on 
them  in  the  dark,  and  their  barking  protests  as  they 
dashed  out  added  to  the  volume  of  sound.  As  they 
swam  beneath  us  the  water  blazed  with  phosphorescence, 
turning  the  place  into  a  veritable  witches'  caldron.  I 
crashed  two  planks  together  to  find  out  what  sound 
really  was,  and  we  could  hear  it  bounding  off  and  far 
away  into  the  interstices  of  the  mountain  in  an  appalling 
series  of  sounds. 

"  Watching  our  chance,  we  reversed  the  operation ; 
the  moment  a  wave  came  in  we  pushed  the  boat  through 
into  the  dazzling  sunshine. 

"  If  I  should  attempt  to  designate  the  most  striking 
feature  of  Santa  Cruz  I  should  name  its  caves,  as  the 


160     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

entire  coast  on  the  water  line  appears  to  be  cut  and  per- 
forated by  the  gnawing  sea.  Some  are  large  and  open ; 
others  spout  water  and  air  with  undisguised  ferocity; 
some  merely  hiss,  growl,  and  moan  as  the  sea  rushes 
into  them ;  while  others  again  appear  so  far  beneath  that 
the  compact  merely  shakes  the  rock  with  a  dull  heavy 
reverberation. 

"  The  cave  known  as  Cueva  Valdez,  toward  the  east 
end  on  the  north  side,  is  quite  as  remarkable  as  the 
Painted  Cave.  It  is  partly  on  land,  and  will  hold  several 
hundred  people.  One  entrance  opens  on  the  little  bay, 
really  a  very  good  harbour ;  the  other  on  a  sandy  canyon 
that  leads  up  into  the  mountains ;  and  there  is  a  trail 
along  the  rocky  shore  to  the  east." 

"  Santa  Cruz  is  one  of  the  largest  of  the  islands,  its 
long  axis  being  parallel  to  the  neighbouring  mainland 
shore.  It  is  twenty-one  miles  long,  extending  almost 
east  and  west,  with  an  average  width  of  five  miles.  On 
the  western  end  a  commanding  peak  rises  to  an  altitude 
of  half  a  mile  or  more,  or,  to  be  exact,  two  thousand 
four  hundred  and  seven  feet.  Another  peak  on  the  east 
end  is  fifteen  hundred  and  forty-nine  feet  high.  Santa 
Cruz  has  a  number  of  peaks  with  respective  altitudes  of 
thirteen  hundred  and  twenty-nine,  thirteen  hundred  and 
seventy-four,  fourteen  hundred  and  ninety-six,  and  fif- 
teen hundred  and  forty-nine  feet.  On  the  northern 
ridge  there  are  peaks  of  eighteen  hundred  feet,  twenty- 
four  hundred  and  seven  feet,  and  twenty-one  hundred 
and  forty-four  feet." 

In  climate  this  island  compares  most  favourably  with 
any  part  of  the  Riviera,  as  here  are  none  of  the  hot  winds 
of  Africa  or  the  cold  breezes  from  the  Maritime  Alps. 
The  eastern  end,  San  Pedro  Point,  is  twenty-one  and 
one-half  miles  from  Santa  Barbara  and  four  miles  from 


The  Channel  Islands  161 

Anacapa ;  and  the  deep  riotous  little  channel  abounds,  as 
I  well  know,  in  game  bonitos,  great  schools  being  seen 
everywhere  on  clear  days. 

Santa  Rosa  is  but  five  miles  from  Santa  Cruz  and  is 
owned  privately.  From  its  highest  peak,  Monte  Negro, 
fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-five  feet,  an  imposing  view 
may  be  obtained.  "  Its  shores  are  high,  precipitous 
bluffs,  abounding  in  great  caves  and  little  bays,  but  there 
are  no  really  good  harbours.  The  east  end  is  rocky  and 
dangerous,  as  two-thirds  of  a  mile  out  a  rocky  cone 
arises  to  within  sixteen  feet  of  the  surface,  and  about 
two  miles  away  there  is  a  shoal  with  less  than  thirty  feet. 
About  two  and  a  half  miles  from  East  Point  there  are 
sand-dunes  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  height,  always 
changing  in  the  strong  wind,  and  once  the  home  of  hun- 
dreds of  natives,  who  have  left  tons  of  abalone  shells  to 
tell  the  story.  The  extreme  northern  end  of  the  island 
is  known  as  Carrington  Point ;  for  nearly  a  mile  it  faces 
the  sea  with  a  bold  and  menacing  front  at  least  four 
hundred  feet  high,  a  notable  sight  from  a  long  distance. 
Nearly  the  entire  island  is  surrounded  with  nereocystean 
kelp,  which  constitutes  a  refuge  for  innumerable  fishes." 

"  San  Miguel,  the  property  of  the  Government,  lies  to 
the  west  of  the  Santa  Barbara  group,  and  is  so  near 
Point  Concepcion  —  but  twenty-one  miles  distant  —  that 
it  is  more  exposed  to  the  winds  than  the  others,  and  is  a 
most  dangerous  place  for  shipping. 

"  But  three  miles  from  Santa  Rosa  across  a  turbulent 
channel  this  island,  seven  and  one-seventh  miles  long, 
east  and  west,  rises  in  two  peaks  in  the  centre  eight  hun- 
dred and  sixty  and  eight  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high. 
It  has  few  beaches ;  its  shores  are  bold  and  rocky ;  and 
the  western  end  when  the  wild  wind  comes  tearing  in, 
is  the  true  lair  of  the  sand-dune.    There  are  no  trees,  and 


162     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

few  bushes  of  any  kind,  the  chief  verdure  being  grass  of 
a  long  coarse  variety  which  thrives  here.  After  the 
rains  wild  flowers  of  various  kinds  appear,  and  the 
assumption  is  that  years  ago  San  Miguel  may  have  been 
well  wooded  like  the  rest  of  the  island,  but  now  is  being 
blown  into  the  sea." 


CHAPTER    X 
California's  climate 

No  romance  equals  the  truth  of  the  charm  and  delight 
of  California's  climate.  Summer  as  well  as  winter, 
spring  as  well  as  autumn,  —  alike  are  alluring,  healthful, 
restful.  It  is  true  that  the  topography  of  California  is 
so  varied  that  it  reproduces  the  climate  of  every  State 
in  the  Union.  This  statement  may  seem  to  many  to  be 
incredible,  yet  it  is  easily  susceptible  of  proof.  In  our 
"  Glimpses  of  the  Land  "  we  saw  that  California  con- 
tained the  highest  peak,  and  also  the  lowest  valley,  in 
altitude  in  the  United  States.  Between  these  two  ex- 
tremes ranges  every  possible  climate,  although  it  is  not 
altitude  alone  that  determines  climate.  California  pos- 
sesses glaciers  and  a  desert  that  out-Saharas  Sahara.  It 
has  regions  where  from  a  hundred  to  two  hundred  inches 
of  rain  fall  annually,  and  others  where  not  more  than 
an  inch  totals  up  the  year's  supply.  Flowers,  fruits  and 
vegetables  grow  perpetually  somewhere  in  the  State,  yet 
there  are  regions  where  for  scores  of  miles  the  horses 
must  wear  snow-shoes  or  they  would  sink  into  snow- 
drifts and  be  lost. 

I  know  of  no  country  that  is  so  all-embracing  in  to- 
pography and  climate.  It  is  truly  a  cosmos  within  itself. 
This  is  nothing  to  boast  of  as  though  it  were  something 
personally  achieved.  Nor  is  it  something  to  be  offended 
at,  if,  in  stating  the  facts,  the  Californian  seems  to  be 
boastful.     He  had  nothing  to  do  with  its  making.     He 

163 


164     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

found  it  here,  and  accepts  with  gratitude,  let  us  hope, 
that  with  which  the  gods  have  favoured  him. 

Ever  since  Joaquin  Miller  wrote  his  First  Families  of 
the  Sierras,  and  gave  the  world  his  inimitable  picture 
of  the  scrubby  little  "  judge  "  who  on  all  occasions  at- 
tributed every  achievement  to  "  the  glorious  climate  of 
Californy,"  the  expression  has  been  common.  It  has 
often  been  quoted  in  derision,  or  supposedly  subtle  sar- 
casm, for,  of  course,  California  does  not  please  everv- 
body.  It  is  even  recorded,  somewhere,  that  one  of  the 
angels  or  archangels  became  dissatisfied  with  the  con- 
ditions of  the  celestial  cit}^  and  he  is  now — elsewhere. 
There  are  disagreeable  features  in  California,  and  such 
a  wholesale  variety  that  it  would  be  singular,  indeed,  if 
some  one  at  some  time  did  not  happen  upon  a  climatic 
manifestation  of  which  he  disapproved.  Climates,  like 
men,  must  be  judged  by  their  averages,  and  the  Cali- 
fornia average  is  extraordinarily  high.  In  my  Through 
Ramona's  Country  I  recount  my  New  Year's  Day  ex- 
periences on  many  occasions,  enjoying  the  snow  of  Mt. 
Lowe,  the  Tournament  of  Roses  at  Pasadena,  and  a 
swim  in  the  Pacific,  all  within  the  short  space  of  three 
hours  spent  for  actual  travel. 

Take  the  question  of  rain  in  California.  The  impres- 
sion has  gone  forth  that  we  have  a  "  rainy  season,"  when 
we  are  deluged,  while  during  the  rest  of  the  year  we 
are  parched  dry.  The  fact  is  we  have  far  less  rain,  gen- 
erally speaking,  than,  say,  any  of  the  New  England, 
Northern,  Middle  West,  or  Southern  States.  Through  a 
large  part  of  California  the  rainfall  is  limited,  from,  in 
San  Diego,  where  the  seasonal  average  is  ten  inches,  and 
Los  Angeles,  where  it  is  nearer  seventeen  inches,  to  sev- 
enteen in  1910  and  twenty-nine  in  191 1  in  Sonoma 
County,  and  twenty-two  in  Contra  Costa  County.     By 


California's  Climate  165 

this  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  it  is  exceptional  for  it 
to  rain  more  than  this  anywhere  in  CaHfornia.  There 
are  regions  where  over  a  hundred  inches  fall,  and  some 
that  exceed  even  this  figure.  But  the  average  residence 
sections  do  not  have,  at  the  most,  more  than  twenty-five 
to  thirty  inches  in  the  year.  Even  Santa  Barbara,  which 
faces  the  South  Pacific,  has  an  annual  rainfall  of  only 
eighteen  inches ;  Ventura,  the  next  county  south,  six- 
teen inches,  thoug'h  the  year  1884  recorded  thirty-eight 
inches.  On  the  other  hand.  Kern  County,  at  the  southern 
end  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  except  in  the  mountains, 
averages  about  six  inches ;  San  Bernardino  County,  still 
further  to  the  south  and  on  the  other  side  of  the  range, 
varies  from  two  or  three  inches  on  the  desert,  to  twenty 
inches  or  more  in  the  mountains ;  while  at  Sacramento 
the  mean  average  for  thirty-three  years  gives  nearly 
twenty-one  inches,  and  Shasta  County,  at  the  head  of 
the  Sacramento  Valley,  reaches  an  average  of  thirty-six 
inches. 

There  is  that  in  the  climate  of  California  —  or  is  it 
the  climate?  perhaps  it  is  something  more  subtle  than 
climate  —  that  makes  one  feel  different.  The  primness, 
the  stififness.  the  formality,  the  reserves  of  life  seem  to 
fall  from  one.  A  new  spirit  takes  possession  of  the 
whole  nature.  There  is  an  expansion  of  soul,  a  freedom 
of  spirit,  an  exuberance  of  fancy,  a  springing  forth  of 
spontaneous  naturalness  that  carries  one  away  from  the 
crystallized  formalism  of  the  older  and  staider  sections 
of  the  country.  The  old  feel  young,  and  the  carew^orn 
joyous,  burdens  drop  away  from  the  spirit  as  the  clouds 
flee  before  the  California  sun.  The  pure  blue  sky  is 
symbolic  of  the  clear  and  speckless  arch  spreading  over 
the  soul;  the  clarity  of  the  atmosphere  of  the  new  in- 
sight into  life.     The-  wild  and  delirious  singing  of  the 


>/ 


166     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

birds  is  but  indicative  of  the  new  and  unrestrained  songs 
that  spring  up  in  the  heart ;  and  the  sweet  odours  of  the 
ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  flow^ers  but  fill  the  soul 
with  unquenchable  desires  to  make  fragrant  the  barren 
and  flowerless  lives  of  the  unhappy  and  unfortunate.  It 
is  a  blessed  land,  this  California  land  where  the  wine 
of  life  flows  so  richly  and  fully  through  the  veins  of  the 
soul  as  well  as  of  the  body,  where  manhood  becomes 
more  vigorous  and  strong  and  womanliness  more  gra- 
cious and  tender,  where  childhood  offers  so  much  more 
to  the  budding  life,  and  the  young  man  and  maiden  live 
in  a  perpetual  springtime. 

It  was  this  "  atmosphere,"  this  intangible  spirit  that 
led  one  of  our  poets  to  sing: 

"  It  is  not  your  mountains  or  magical  chain 
Of  islands  dim  purple,  or  even  the  sea, 
With  gay  racing  billows  by  day,  and  by  night 
His  monotone  chant  to  uncomforted  souls. 
Not  these,  but  the  Spirit  of  these,  but  the  breath, 
The  reviving,  the  incomprehensible  Air 
That  we  float  in,  and  live  in,  and  love  till  we  die." 

Think  of  the  climate  that  called  forth  from  the  poet 
this  practically  truthful  description,  and  think  of  days 
like  this,  when  children  may  be  out  of  doors  studying 
their  lessons  most  of  the  days  of  the  year: 

"  More  perfect  than  a  string  of  pearls 
We  hold  the  full  days  of  the  year; 
The  days  troop  by  like  flower-girls, 
And  all  the  days  are  ours  here. 
Here  youth  must  learn;  here  age  may  live 
Full  tide  each  day  the  year  can  give." 

Of  its  winter  climate  listen  to  this  absolutely  true  song 
of  Joaquin  Miller's,  sung  of  San  Diego : 


California's  Climate  167 

My  sunclad  city  walks  in  light 

And  lasting  summer  weather; 

Red  roses  bloom  on  bosoms  white 

And  rosy  cheeks  together. 

If  you  should  smite  one  cheek,  still  smite 

For  she  will  turn  the  other. 

The  thronged  warm  street  tides  to  and  fro 

And  Love,  roseclad,  discloses 

The  only  snowstorm  we  shall  know 

Is  this  white  storm  of  roses  — 

It  seems  like  Maytime,  mating  so, 

And  —  Nature  coimting  noses. 

Soft  sea  winds  sleep  on  yonder  tide; 
You  hear  some  boatmen  rowing. 
Their  sisters'  hands  trail  o'er  the  side; 
They  toy  with  warm  waves  flowing; 
Their  laps  are  laden  deep  and  wide 
From  rose-trees  green  and  growing. 

Such  roses  white!  such  roses  red! 
Such  roses  richly  yellow! 
The  air  is  like  a  perfume  fed 
From  autumn  fruits  full  mellow  — 
But  see!  a  brother  bends  his  head, 
An  oar  forgets  its  fellow! 

Give  me  to  live  in  land  like  this, 
Nor  let  me  wander  further; 
Some  sister  in  some  boat  of  bliss 
And  I  her  only  brother  — 
Sweet  paradise  on  earth  it  is; 
I  would  not  seek  another." 

Now  see  how   Edward   Rowland   Sill  sings  his  own 
song  to  the  same  stimulating  theme: 

CHRISTMAS   IN   CALIFORNIA 

"  Can  this  be  Christmas  —  sweet  as  May, 
With  drowsy  sun  and  dreamy  air, 
And  new  grass  pointing  out  the  way 
For  flowers  to  follow,  everywhere? 


168     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


"  Has  Time  grown  sleepy  at  his  post, 
And  let  the  exiled  Summer  back, 
Or  is  it  her  regretful  ghost, 
Or  witchcraft  of  the  almanac? 

"  While  wandering  breaths  of  mignonette 
In  at  the  open  window  come, 
I  send  my  thoughts  afar,  and  let 
Them  paint  j''our  Christmas  Day  at  home. 

"  Glitter  of  ice,  and  glint  of  frost, 
And  sparkles  in  the  crusted  snow; 
And  hark!   the  dancing  sleigh-bells,  tost 
The  faster  as  they  fainter  grow. 

"  The  creaking  footsteps  hurry  past; 

The  quick  breath  dims  the  frosty  air; 
And  down  the  crisp  road  slipping  fast 
Their  laughing  loads  the  cutters  bear. 

"  Penciled  against  the  cold  white  sky, 
Above  the  curling  eaves  of  snow, 
The  thin  blue  smoke  lifts  lingeringly, 
As  loath  to  leave  the  mirth  below. 

"  For  at  the  door  a  merry  din 

Is  heard,  with  stamp  of  feathery  feet. 
And  chattering  girls  come  storming  in, 
To  toast  them  at  the  roaring  grate. 

"  And  then  from  muff  and  pocket  peer, 
And  many  a  warm  and  scented  nook, 
Mysterious,  little  bundles  queer. 
That,  rustling,  tempt  the  curious  look. 

"  Now  broad  upon  the  southern  walls 

The  mellowed  sun's  great  smile  appears. 
And  tips  the  rough-ringed  icicles 

With  sparks,  that  grow  to  glittering  tears. 

"  Then,  as  the  darkening  day  goes  by, 
The  wind  gets  gustier  without, 
The  leaden  streaks  are  on  the  sky. 
And  whirls  of  snow  are  all  about. 


California's  Climate  169 


"  Soon  firelight  shadows,  merry  crew, 
Along  the  darkling  walls  will  leap 
And  clap  their  hands,  as  if  they  knew 
A  thousand  things  too  good  to  keep. 

"  Sweet  eyes  with  home's  contentment  filled. 
As  in  the  smouldering  coals  they  peer. 
Haply  some  wondering  pictures  build 
Of  how  I  keep  my  Christmas  here. 

"  Before  me,  on  the  wide,  warm  bay, 
A  million  azure  ripples  run; 
Round  me  the  sprouting  palm-shoots  lay 
Their  shining  lances  to  the  sun. 

"  With  glossy  leaves  that  poise  or  swing, 
The  callas  their  white  cups  unfold, 
And  faintest  chimes  of  odour  ring 

From  silver  bells  with  tongues  of  gold. 

"  A  languor  of  deliciousness 

Fills  all  the  sea-enchanted  clime; 
And  in  the  blue  heavens  meet,  and  kiss, 
The  loitering  clouds  of  summer-time. 

"  This  fragrance  of  the  mountain  balm 
From  spicy  Lebanon  might  be; 
Beneath  such  sunshine's  amber  calm 
Slumbered  the  waves  of  Galilee. 

"  O  wondrous  gift,  in  goodness  given, 
Each  hour  anew  our  eyes  to  greet, 
An'  earth  so  fair  —  so  close  to  Heaven, 
'Twas  trodden  by  the  Master's  feet. 

"  And  w6  —  what  bring  we  in  return? 
Only  these  broken  lives,  and  lift 
Them  up  to  meet  His  pitying  scorn, 
As  some  poor  child  its  foolish  gift: 

"  As  some  poor  child  on  Christmas  Day 
Its  broken  toy  in  love  might  bring; 
You  could  not  break  its  heart  and  say 
You  cared  not  for  the  worthless  thing? 


170     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

"  Ah,  word  of  trust,  His  child!    That  child 
Who  brought  to  earth  the  life  divine, 
Tells  me  the  Father's  pity  mild 

Scorns  not  even  such  a  gift  as  mine. 

"  I  am  His  creature,  and  His  air 

I  breathe,  where'er  my  feet  may  stand; 
The  angels'  song  rings  everywhere. 
And  all  the  earth  is  Holy  Land."  * 

Of  the  summer  climate  equally  enthusiastic  songs  have 
been  sung,  and  powerful  encomiums  written,  but  few 
strangers  know  or  believe  this.  They  are  so  carried  away 
with  the  incomparable  winters  that  they  cannot  realize  or 
believe  what  the  summer  brings.  Yet,  as  I  have  shown 
elsewhere,  experience  demonstrates  that  the  California 
summers,  in  chosen  locahties,  are  even  superior  to  her 
winters. 

1  From  Poems  by  E.  R.  Sill.  By  kind  permission  of  Houghton,  Mifl3in 
&  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 


CHAPTER    XI 

IN    AND    AROUND    THE    GOLDEN    GATE 

The  very  name  "  Golden  Gate "  suggests  romance 
and  beauty.  Of  the  latter  it  has  its  sufficient  quota,  as 
all  who  have  seen  it  from  the  Berkeley  Hills  have  de- 
clared, when  they  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  catch 
the  view  as  the  setting  sun  slowly  fell  directly  between 
its  rocky  walls  and  blazed  its  path  of  golden  glory  from 
the  hills,  over  the  bay,  through  to  the  far-away  horizon, 
with  enough  glowing  gold  spilled  over  the  Gate's  own 
rocky  masses  to  transmute  them  into  a  scene  of  tran- 
scendent beauty. 

Fremont  named  it  in  1846,  as  he  stood  on  the  hills 
at  what  was  afterwards  Joaquin  Miller's  "  Hights."  He 
says :  '*  Approaching  from  the  sea,  the  coast  presents  a 
bold  outline.  On  the  south,  the  bordering  mountains 
come  down  in  a  narrow  ridge  of  broken  hills,  termina- 
ting in  a  precipitous  point,  against  which  the  sea  breaks 
heavily.  On  the  northern  side,  the  mountain  presents 
a  bold  promontory,  rising  in  a  few  miles  to  a  height  of 
two  or  three  thousand  feet.  Between  these  points  is 
the  strait  — about  one  mile  broad  in  the  narrowest  part, 
and  five  miles  long  from  the  sea  to  the  bay.  To  this 
Gate  I  gave  the  name  of  Chrysopylae,  or  Golden  Gate : 
for  the  same  reasons  that  the  harbour  of  Byzantium 
(Constantinople  afterwards)  was  called  Chrysoceras,  or 
Grolden  Horn." 

In  a  note  Fremont  adds :    "  The  form  of  the  harbour 

171 


172     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

and  its  advantages  for  commerce,  and  that  before  it 
became  an  entrepot  of  Eastern  commerce,  suggested  the 
name  to  the  Greek  founders  of  Byzantium.  The  form 
of  the  entrance  into  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  and  its 
advantages  for  commerce,  Asiatic  inclusive,  suggested  to 
me  the  name,  Golden  Gate." 

These  authoritative  statements,  therefore,  do  away 
with  the  explanations  of  the  name  evolved  out  of  the  self- 
consciousness  of  certain  people  who  were  assured  it  was 
so  called  because  of  the  gold  found  in  the  State,  or 
because  of  the  gold  of  its  poppies.  For  Marshall  did 
t  not  discover  gold  until  nearly  two  years  later  than  the 
name  was  applied. 

Hence  it  may  be  regarded  —  from  one  standpoint  — 
as  another  of  the  unconscious  prophecies  that  California 
has  been  the  subject  of  ever  since  men  have  written 
about  its  glories  and  possibilities.  Fremont  would  be  daz- 
zled with  the  commerce  that  now  pours  in  daily  through 
his  Golden  Gate,  and  he  surely  would  be  entranced  could 
he  stand  on  Alcatraz  Island  and  see  the  marvellous  build- 
ings of  the  Panama-Pacific  Exposition  covering  an  area, 
part  of  which,  when  he  first  saw  it,  was  the  barren, 
rugged  shore  of  the  Gate,  and  another  part  a  sand-spit 
covered  by  the  shallow  water  of  the  bay. 

In  site  and  environment,  as  well  as  in  history,  San 
Francisco  is  romantic,  and  its  beauty  is  unquestioned. 
On  varied  ground,  rising  to  its  many  hills  —  Rincon, 
Telegraph,  Russian.  Buena  Vista,  Strawberry  (in  the 
Park),  and  Nob  (so  called  because  of  the  "nobs"  or 
millionaires  who  built  their  residences  upon  it),  are  all 
noted  hills,  and  Lone  Mountain,  Twin  Peaks,  Bernal 
Heights  and  Mt.  Parnassus  are  more  dominant  hills 
beyond. 

In  the  early  days  of  American  occupancy  there  were 


In  and  Around  the  Golden  Gate        173 

many  other  hills,  but  as  most  of  them  were  of  sand  they 
were  removed  as  the  city's  needs  required.  In  those  days 
vessels  used  to  anchor  by  the  side  of  where  Montgomery 
Street  now  is.  Market  Street  was  a  great,  long  sand 
hill  that  reached  to  the  foot  of  the  peak  five  miles  away. 
The  first  steam-paddy,  or  shovel,  used  in  California  was 
brought  for  the  purpose  of  shovelling  that  sand  into 
cars  which  took  it  to  the  bay  and  there  dumped  it;  and 
upon  the  filled-in  space  the  city  from  Montgomery  Street 
to  the  present  bay  front  has  been  built. 

The  hills  and  rises  overlooking  the  Golden  Gate  have 
all  been  seized  and  built  upon  by  those  who  appreciate 
fine  views.  For  here  the  aesthetic  senses  are  satisfied  to 
the  full.  The  rolling  tide  of  the  incoming  or  outgoing 
waters  at  one's  feet,  glistening  and  dancing  in  the  sun- 
shine, the  green  slopes  of  the  hills  on  the  opposite  shore, 
crowned  by  the  tree-clad  Mt.  Tamalpais  above,  the  whole 
enlivened  by  the  incoming  or  outgoing  coast  steamers, 
Oriental  liners,  lumber  or  fishing  smacks,  freight  and 
oil  schooners  and  pleasure  boats,  many  of  them  with 
white  sails  set  and  filled  with  the  breeze,  make  a  scene 
of  incomparable  charm. 

There  are  few  large  cities  in  the  world  that  comprise 
terraced  hills  within  their  borders,  and  yet  that  are  sur- 
rounded on  three  sides  by  deep  water  that  allows  the 
ready  handling  and  manoeuvring  of  warships  and  deep- 
sea  vessels.  Yet  San  Francisco  is  so  situated.  It  is  on 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Golden  Gate 
and  on  the  Bay.  Its  only  land  entrance  is  by  way  of  the 
peninsula  on  the  south  side.  This  is  enough  to  set  it 
off  as  a  city  by  itself,  a  rare,  remarkable  city  in  location 
that  should  make  of  itself  all  that  Nature  has  made  pos- 
sible. Think  of  the  inspiration  that  must  come  to  a 
people  whose  every  view  from  window,  porch,  house  or 


174     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

hill  top  is  of  the  great  Bay,  the  swelling  tide  of  the  Gate, 
or  the  illimitable  stretch  of  the  Pacific. 

Nor  does  this  end  the  blessed  environment.  Beyond 
the  Bay  lie  the  orchards  and  rich  pasture  lands  of  Con- 
tra Costa,  Marin  and  Santa  Clara  Counties,  and  the 
eye  sees  Mt.  Diablo,  Mt.  Hamilton,  Loma  Prieta,  and 
on  rare  occasions  even  the  dreamy,  hazy,  filmy  sug- 
gestions of  the  far-away  snow-clad  Sierras. 

Then  there  are  the  islands,  close  by,  in  the  bay,  — 
Alcatraz,  Yerba-Buena,  Angel  and  the  rest,  with  the 
ferry-boats  shuttling  to  and  fro,  to  Oakland,  Richmond, 
Sausalito,  Tiburon,  and  further  up  to  Mare  Island  and 
the  Sacramento  River. 

While  entirely  different  from  the  city  of  the  psalm- 
ist's exuberant  song,  there  is  no  denying  that  "  beautiful 
for  situation  is  this  city,"  and  that  many  regard  it  as 
the  "  joy  of  the  whole  earth."  Some  of  her  citizens  have 
recognized  this.  While  there  is  as  much  mean  commer- 
cialism in  San  Francisco  as  there  is  in  every  other  city 
of  its  size, — and  it  will  never  rise  to  its  possibilities 
until  these  adverse  elements  "  die  ofif,"  —  there  have 
always  been  a  few  who  had  the  enlarged  vision  as  to 
what  their  city  might  become.  James  Lick  did  some- 
thing to  beautify  and  adorn  it;  Adolf  Sutro  bound  the 
sand  hills  together,  built  the  Cliff  House  and  embattle- 
mented  Sutro  Heights,  making  them  free  to  the  people, 
won  a  live-cent  road  out  to  the  beach,  and  besides,  planted 
a  million  trees  (more  or  less),  and  thus  made  possible 
a  dense  forest  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  Others  have  done 
the  same,  to  greater  or  lesser  extent,  though  it  is  much 
to  be  deplored  that  San  Francisco  had  not  the  courage 
and  daring,  the  judgment  and  enthusiasm  to  seize  the 
opportunity  the  earthquake  and  fire  of  1906  forced  upon 
it,  and  follow,  as  far  as  was  possible,  the  plans  for  the 


In  and  Around  the  Golden  Gate       175 

adornment  of  the  city  suggested  by  D.  H.  Burnham, 
who,  in  1904,  had  been  requested  and  engaged  to  formu- 
late such  plans.  It  would  have  required  almost  super- 
human courage,  but  had  they  dared,  San  Francisco 
would,  by  that  one  act  alone,  have  placed  herself  in  the 
very  forefront  of  the  cities  of  the  world,  and  in  a  few 
decades  have  more  than  won  back  all  she  had  risked,  or 
spent.  But  far  be  it  from  me  to  criticize,  in  any  other 
than  the  kindest  spirit,  a  city  that  was  so  stricken  as 
San  Francisco.  Her  glorious  resurrection  after  her  so 
near  destruction  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  ages. 

The  great  divisions  of  San  Francisco  are  I,  the  Water 
Front,  II,  South  of  Market  St.,  Ill,  the  Presidio  district, 
IV,  the  several  residence  sections,  V,  the  Latin  Quarter 
or  Little  Italy,  VI,  Chinatown,  and  VII,  the  Cliff  House. 
Each  is  worth  a  little  personal  attention. 

I.  The  Water  Front.  This  is  the  main  gateway  to 
San  Francisco.  All  the  transcontinental  railways  land 
their  passengers  on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  bay  —  at 
Oakland,  Richmond,  etc.,  and  bring  them  to  the  city  by 
ferry.  The  wharves  of  the  Pacific  liners  are  close  by, 
from  which  steamers  sail  to  the  farthest  ends  of  the 
earth.  From  this  water  front  Charles  Warren  Stoddard 
sailed  to  visit  the  South  Seas,  where  he  wrote  his  mar- 
vellous South  Sea  Idylls;  Mark  Twain  went  to  Hawaii 
and  wrote  the  sketches  that  helped  give  him  his  fame; 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  left  for  the  South  Seas,  where 
he  lived  his  last  years ;  and  Jack  London  started  on  his 
Snark  trip.  The  North  Beach  is  a  historic  spot  in  San 
Francisco  annals,  and  it  is  picturesque  to  the  visitor  of 
to-day.  Greek  and  Neapolitan,  Portuguese  and  China- 
man cluster  in  their  varied  boats,  around  Fisherman's 
Wharf,  and  if  the  weather  be  just  right,  you  can  shut 
your  eyes,  forget  for  a  moment  you  are  on  the  Pacific 


176     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Ocean,  open  them  again  and  be  fully  assured  you  are 
back  in  Naples.  Sounds,  sights,  figures,  vessels,  words, 
colour  and  atmosphere  are  all  Neapolitan.  It  is  adjoin- 
ing North  Beach  that  the  Panama-Pacific  Exposition 
grounds  are  located. 

Swinging  around  to  the  south  again,  passing  the  Ferry 
Building,  at  the  other  end  of  the  Water  Front,  is  China 
Basin,  and  South  San  Francisco.  Here  is  Hunter's  Point 
Dry  Dock,  the  largest  in  America,  and  midway  between 
it  and  the  Ferry  Building  are  the  Union  Iron  Works, 
where  the  Ohio  and  Oregon  were  built  for  the  United 
States  navy. 

II.  "  South  of  Market  ''  is  the  euphemistic  method  of 
describing  the  crowded,  rougher,  poorer  section  of  the 
city,  as  the  Barbary  Coast  is  the  euphemism  for  that  por- 
tion of  the  W^ater  Front  where  the  Jack  tars  of  all 
nations  carouse,  drink,  dance  and  revel. 

III.  The  Presidio  district  naturally  centres  at  the  pre- 
sidio, or  fort.  This  is  the  Army  Headquarters  for  the 
Department  of  California.  It  is  a  glorious  park  of  1,54- 
acres,  overlooking  the  Golden  Gate,  where  are  the  of- 
ficers' homes,  the  quarters  for  the  soldiers,  the  parade 
grounds,  and  the  ominous-looking  guns  that  threaten 
improper  comers. 

"  War  keeps  his  dreadful  engines  at  command, 
With  frowning  brow  and  unrelaxing  hand  .  .  . 
A  tiger  sleeping  on  a  bed  of  flowers," 

as  San  Francisco's  poet-mayor  so  graphically  worded  it. 
Now  while,  officially,  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  Pre- 
sidio, there  is  a  superior  residence  section  adjacent  to 
the  reservation  that  one's  automobile  should  pass  through 
either  before  or  after  the  Presidio  trip. 

IV.  Then  the  various  residence  sections  are  interest- 


In  and  Around  the  Golden  Gate        177 

ing  to  those  who  care  about  the  architecture  of  a  city's 
homes,  and  a  knowledge  of  their  sites  and  environment. 
San  Francisco  is  remarkably  fortunate  in  this  matter, 
though  it  is  scarcely  within  my  scope  to  enter  into  detail 
upon  the  subject. 

V.  But  when  it  comes  to  Little  Italy,  that  is  another 
matter.  These  "  city  within  a  city  "  sections  are  always 
fascinating  to  visitors.  Partially  on  Telegraph  Hill,  and 
the  streets  that  radiate  therefrom,  is  this  Latin  Quarter. 
Here  you  hear  the  tongues  of  the  Mediterranean  and 
smell  the  cooking  of  the  lands  thereof.  Spaghetti  and 
red  wine  abound  and  garlic  is  not  forgotten. 

VL  But  most  interesting  of  the  quainter  side  of  San 
Francisco  life  is  Chinatown  —  a  new,  rebuilt,  remod- 
elled Chinatown  since  the  1906  fire,  but  still  Chinatown, 
distinct,  separate  and  individualistic.  As  Allan  Dunn 
wrote :  "  Many  deplore  the  passing  of  the  Old  China- 
town with  the  fire.  The  weird  fascination  of  under- 
ground cellars,  where  gamblers  played  behind  labyrinths 
of  barricaded  doors  and  passages,  where  the  atmosphere 
was  fetid  with  lack  of  sanitation  and  the  reek  of  opium, 
and  strange,  long-kept  edibles,  where  slave  girls  were 
celled,  bartered  or  murdered  at  will ;  of  polluted  dens 
where  degenerate  wrecks  sought  solace  in  poppy-var 
poured  dreams  —  all  that  is  gone  —  but  the  Chinaman 
.  .  .  has  not  changed  many  of  his  spots."  And  else- 
where he  says :  "  Chinatown  holds,  it  would  seem,  great 
interest  with  great  mystery.  With  somewhat  of  super- 
stition and  lethargy  as  regards  the  world's  affairs  elim- 
inated with  his  queue,  the  transplanted  Chinaman  is  not 
so  great  a  puzzle  as  of  yore.  We  wonder  at  many  of 
his  superstitions,  his  peculiarities  of  palate,  his  ideas  of 
musical  scale,  limitations  of  theatrical  staging  and  the 
like,  but  we  know  and  understand  something  of  his  be- 


178     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

liefs  and  customs,  have  an  admiration  for  the  broad 
tenets  of  his  religion  and  many  of  his  achievements  in 
the  arts  and  sciences ;  and  we  of  the  West  and  those 
who  have  more  than  superficially  visited  the  Orient,  es- 
teem him  as  a  person  of  honour,  of  excellent  family 
traits  and  a  man  of  parts." 

But  though  the  queue-clipping  edict  had  its  strong 
influence  in  Chinatown,  and  many  a  Chinaman  of  the 
older  order  can  be  seen,  in  brocaded  trousers  and  coat, 
be-felted  shoes  and  button-topped  hat,  "  feeling  at  the 
back  of  his  head  at  the  place  where  his  hair  ought  to 
be  "  and  is  not,  you  may  still  see  the  dragon  in  China- 
town, hear  the  clashing  cymbals  and  clang  of  gongs, 
squeak  of  fife  and  fiddle,  smell  the  incense  and  all  the 
strange  and  fishy  smells,  and  see  the  temples,  bazaars, 
food  stores,  barber-shops  and  the  like  of  the  older  civil- 
ization. But  do  not  be  tempted  to  talk  "  pigeon  Eng- 
lish "  to  the  store-keepers,  or  you  may  be  charged  an 
additional  fifty  cents  for  your  want  of  perspicacity, 
although  your  servitor  may  respond  in  kind  with  a  grav- 
ity and  imperturbability  equal  to  that  of  the  proverbial 
"  boiled  owl." 

VII.  The  Clift'  House  for  half  a  century  was  the  out- 
post of  American  civilization  on  the  west.  It  was  the 
place  of  high  revelry  in  the  days  of  gold,  the  days  of 
old,  and  the  days  that  immediately  followed  those  of  '49. 
The  present  building  is  the  fifth,  although  the  first,  in 
1858,  was  named  Seal  Rock  House.  The  second  was 
called  Cliflf  House.  It  was  erected  in  1861.  The  pres- 
ent is  a  concrete  structure,  and  its  chief  charm  is  that 
it  is  built  on  the  edge  of  the  cliff  immediately  overlook- 
ing the  Seal  Rocks,  where  barking,  swimming,  diving, 
clumsily-walking  sea-lions  revel  and  enjoy  the  dashing 
waves  or  catch  the  fish  that  come  near  by.    All  the  moods 


WINE   PRESS    STATUE,    GOLDEN    GATE    PARK. 


In  and  Around  the  Golden  Gate        179 

of  ocean,  too,  from  wildest  storm  to  Nirvana-like  calm, 
may  be  enjoyed  from  the  Cliff  House,  and  I  have  spent 
hours,  at  different  times,  watching  the  varied  shipping 
coming  out  or  going  into  the  Golden  Gate  near  by.  The 
excellent  hotel  service  of  the  place  does  not  in  any  way 
detract  from  its  scenic  advantages. 

Immediately  behind  the  Cliff  House  are  Sutro 
Heights,  on  which  the  builder  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  and 
the  former  mayor  of  the  city,  erected  his  home.  The 
grounds  have  always  been  open  to  the  public. 

On  one  side  of  the  Cliff  House  are  the  Sutro  Baths, 
large,  commodious  and  supplied  with  sea-water;  on  the 
other  stretches  the  beach,  which  for  years  has  been  grow- 
ing in  favour  as  a  resort  for  the  picknickers,  pleasure 
seekers  and  children  of  the  city.  Every  Christmas  Day, 
too,  the  Olympic  Club  here  takes  its  annual  bath,  run 
and  jinks  on  the  beach,  the  moving  picture  of  which  is 
shown  the  world  around,  as  a  proof  of  California's  at- 
tractive climate. 

Not  far  away  is  the  Life  Saving  Station. 

The  Great  Highway  is  the  Beach  Boulevard  for  auto- 
mobiles that  begins  at  the  Cliff  House  and  extends  for 
miles  south,  and  is  but  one  of  many  of  the  delightful 
roads  that  belong  to  San  Francisco. 

But,  undoubtedly,  the  chief  glory  of  the  city  is  its 
Golden  Gate  Park.  And  well  it  may  be.  Under  the 
control  of  a  superintendent,  Mr.  John  MacLaren,  who 
is  an  indefatigable  worker  and  a  genius  in  dealing  with 
plants,  trees  and  flowers,  this  thousand  acre  patch  has 
grown,  in  forty  years,  from  a  wild  waste  of  sand  hills 
to  one  of  the  most  attractive  and  pleasing  parks  of  the 
world.  There  are  a  Temple  of  Music,  Child's  Play- 
ground, Japanese  Tea  Garden,  Museum  fin  a  building 
that  remains  as  a  memorial  of  the  Midwinter  Fair  of 


180     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


1894),  Academy  of  Sciences,  Conservatory,  Aviary, 
Zoological  paddocks,  several  lakes,  an  observatory,  Ro- 
man bridges,  monuments  galore.  Stadium  and  athletic 
fields,  Tennis,  Baseball,  Football  and  other  recreation 
grounds.  Windmills  and  a  Chalet.  Another  interesting 
feature  is  the  Norwegian  sloop  Gjoa,  the  famous  vessel 
in  which  Captain  Amundsen  made  his  historic  northwest 
passage  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  in  1908.  The 
people  of  Norway  presented  it  to  the  City  of  San  Fran- 
cisco. 

After  the  great  fire  (1906),  this  and  the  other  parks 
of  San  Francisco  sheltered  fully  two  hundred  thousand 
of  those  who  were  made  homeless,  and  on  June  2d  the 
Commencement  Exercises  of  the  schools  were  held  at 
the  outdoor  Temple  of  Music,  and  1,700  pupils  received 
their  certificates  of  graduation. 

There  are  numberless  smaller  parks  in  the  city,  the 
most  interesting  and  historic  being  Portsmouth  Square, 
formerly  the  heart  of  Yerba  Buena.  Near  the  corner 
of  Dupont  and  Clay  Streets  was  the  house  of  Jacob 
Leese,  where,  in  1836,  the  first  Fourth  of  July  celebra- 
tion was  held,  and,  in  1840,  the  first  child  born  of  Amer- 
ican parents  saw  the  light.  The  first  hotel,  custom- 
house, church,  school-house,  bank,  store  and  newspaper 
ofhce  were  built  around  it,  or  near  by.  It  received  its 
name  from  the  fact  that  on  July  8,  1846,  the  American 
flag  was  first  raised  here  from  the  United  States  sloop- 
of-war,  the  Portsmouth,  Captain  Montgomery  command- 
ing, whose  name  was  conferred  upon  the  street  one  block 
east.  It  was  the  city's  centre  during-  that  wild  epoch  of 
the  gold  days.  Here  were  the  gilded  palaces  of  gin  and 
chance  to  which  the  miners  flocked,  and,  strange  to  say, 
in  1850  a  procession  of  Chinese  marched  around  it,  when 
the  city  bade  them  welcome.     This  was  prior  to  the  sand 


In  and  Around  the  Golden  Gate*       181 

lot  agitations  which  culminated  in  the  formulation  by- 
Congress  of  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Act.  In  185 1  one 
of  the  Vigilance  Committee  hangings  took  place  on  one 
of  the  overhanging  beams  of  the  Custom  House.  Here 
in  1879  the  well-beloved  Stevenson  used  to  come  and  sit. 
Hence  the  unique  monument  to  Stevenson  that  now 
stands  there,  designed  by  Bruce  Porter  and  Willis  Polk. 

Union  Square  is  nearer  the  present  business  heart  of 
the  city.  The  St.  Francis  Hotel  is  at  one  corner.  Its 
chief  attraction  is  the  slender  and  graceful  Dewey__Col- 
umn,  surmounted  by  a  figure  of  Victory  holding  a  laurel 
wreath,  designed  by  Robert  Aitken.  a  San  Francisco 
sculptor  of  world-embracing  genius. 

The  most  historic  building  of  the  city  is  the  Mission, 
dedicated  to  the  founder  of  the  San  Franciscan  order, 
and  from  which  the  city  gains  its  name.  Mr.  Zoeth 
Eldredge,  an  enthusiastic  and  painstaking  historian  of  i 
the  city,  has  written  two  excellent  volumes  on  The  Be- 
ginnings of  San  Francisco,  which  afford  fascinating 
glimpses  of  its  life  in  those  ancient  (though  chronolog- 
ically not  far  away)  days.  Though  a  new  and  preten- 
tious church  edifice  close  by  was  shaken  down  in  the 
earthquake  of  1906,  the  old  adobe  building  still  remains, 
a  memorial  not  only  of  the  faith  and  devotion  of  the 
padres,  but  of  the  satisfactory  and  conscientious  work 
of  the  Indians  In  the  cemetery  adjoining  it  are  a  num- 
ber of  interesting  monuments,  two  of  which  are  to  Cora 
and  Casey,  hanged  by  the  Vigilance  Committee  of  1856. 

One  has  little  space  in  a  book  of  this  character  to 
speak  of  the  ordinary  hotels  of  cities,  yet  San  Francisco 
has  two  hotels  that  are  so  out  of  the  ordinary  that  they 
cannot  be  ignored.  The  Palace  Hotel,  for  twenty  years 
after  its  erection,  was  the  largest  hotel  in  the  world. 
In  its  unique  inner  court  the  carriages   of  citizen  and 


182     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

visitor,  traveller  and  passing  statesman  used  to  be  driven, 
greeted  by  the  blare  of  welcoming  band.  Now,  remod- 
elled after  the  1906  fire,  the  elite  of  San  Francisco  meet 
there  for  their  daily  greetings,  society  functions  and 
afternoon  teas.  The  kitchens  of  the  Palace  are  marvels 
of  ingenious  arrangement,  and  in  the  barroom  (I  wish 
it  were  in  a  better  place)  is  that  striking  picture  of 
Maxfield  Parrish  portraying  with  the  power  of  genius 
Browning's  Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin. 

The  Fairmont  Hotel  is  that  dominating  structure  of 
marble  that  rises  triumphant,  on  Nob  Hill,  over  all  the 
rest  of  the  city,  and  that  one  first  sees,  whether  he  ar- 
rives in  San  Francisco  by  the  Coast  Line  up  the  Penin- 
sula, or  from  the  ferry-boat  on  the  Bay.  It  was  built 
by  the  heirs  of  James  Fair,  one  of  the  Comstock  mag- 
nates, hence  its  name. 

There  is  no  time  when  San  Francisco  wears  such  an 
air  of  romance,  to  me,  as  at  night  time,  and  it  should 
then  be  seen  from  the  ferry-boat.  Here  is  Gelett  Bur- 
f  gess's  description :  "  There  it  lay,  a  constellation  of 
lights,  a  golden  radiance,  dimmed  by  the  distance,  San 
Francisco  the  impossible,  the  City  of  Miracles.  Of  it 
and  its  people  many  stories  have  been  told,  and  many 
shall  be ;  but  a  thousand  tales  shall  not  exhaust  its  treas- 
ury of  Romance.  Earthquake  and  fire  shall  not  change 
it,  terror  and  suffering  shall  not  break  its  glad,  mad 
spirit.  Time  alone  can  tame  the  to^v^l  .  .  .  and  rob  it 
of  its  nameless  charm,  subdue  it  to  the  commonplace." 

In  its  surroundings  and  tributary  country  San  Fran- 
cisco is  remarkably  fortunate.  Strange  to  say,  as  com- 
pared with  Los  Angeles,  it  seems  singularly  deficient  in 
coast  resorts.  For  years  its  ClifT  House  Beach,  and 
far-away  Santa  Cruz  and  Monterey  were  its  chief  ocean 
attractions,  with  a  few  sparsely  visited  nooks  of  charm 


In  and  Around  the  Golden  Gate        183 

and  beauty  to  the  north,  as  Tomales  Bay.  Of  late  years, 
however,  since  the  opening  of  the  Ocean  Shore  Railway, 
which  runs  forty  miles  south,  several  places  have  been 
started,  destined  to  grow  into  fame.  Chief  of  these  is 
Montara,  with  three  or  four  others  running"  close  behind. 

The  chief  mountain  resort,  close  to  the  city,  is  Mt. 
Tamalpais,  on  which  is  the  most  crooked  railway  on 
earth.  It  turns,  —  not  a  somersault,  —  but  a  double 
bow-knot,  and  in  a  little  over  eight  miles,  and  an  ascent 
of  2,500  feet,  has  over  two  hundred  and  eighty  curves. 
It  was  built  in  1896,  and  is  a  standard  broad  gauge  road. 
Its  peculiarity  is  that  the  engine  wheels  clamp  the  rails 
as  they  progress.  There  are  no  steeper  grades  than 
seven  per  cent.,  but  it  is  one  of  the  famous  mountain 
railways  of  the  world.  It  crosses  deep-cut  canyons  in 
the  mountain  where  every  slope  is  rich  with  the  foliage 
of  redwoods,  madrones,  oaks,  laurels,  sycamores,  man- 
zanita,  .sages,  and  a  hundred  forms  of  daintily-flowered 
chaparral. 

A  little  on  one  side  from  the  summit  are  the  Muir 
Woods,  given  by  Congressman  Kent  to  the  government, 
and  named  after  California's  famous  scientist-naturalist- 
author,  John  Muir.  The  redwoods  are  of  fine  propor- 
tions and  exquisite  symmetry  and  thousands  visit  them 
every  year. 

But,  necessarily,  the  chief  charm  to  most  of  those 
who  make  the  ascent  of  Mt.  Tamalpais,  is  the  view  from 
the  summit.  It  is  wide  and  expansive  —  the  ocean,  with 
the  Farallone  Islands  on  the  one  hand ;  the  wild,  rugged 
coast,  and  the  beautiful  valleys  of  San  Mateo  County 
on  the  north,  with  Mt.  St.  Helena,  fifty-six  miles,  and 
Mt.  Shasta,  three  hundred  miles  away,  snow-crowned 
and  majestic,  often  in  sight.  If  the  day  is  clear  enough 
to  reveal  Shasta,  the  eye  may  generally  follow  down,  to 


184     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

due  east,  the  course  of  the  Sierra  Nevadas,  where  Mt. 
Diablo  and  Mt.  Hamilton  in  the  nearer  ranges  come 
into  sight.  On  the  south  the  horizon  line  is  met  with 
the  Santa  Cruz  range,  the  chief  peak  of  which,  Loma 
Prieta,  dark  and  gloomy,  fifty  miles  away,  is  the  dom- 
inating landmark.  Shut  in  by  these  encircling  moun- 
tains is  some  of  the  most  fertile,  varied  and  interesting 
country  of  California.  Sonoma  and  Napa  Counties,  with 
their  marvellously  fertile  valleys;  Marin  County,  with 
many  picturesque  and  dainty  growing  suburban  towns; 
prosperous  Richmond,  started  little  over  ten  years  ago 
as  the  terminus  of  the  Santa  Fe  Railway,  and  speedily 
made  the  home  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company's  refineries 
and  distributing  and  receiving  plants  and  pipe  lines,  the 
Pullman  Car  Company's  shops ;  Winehaven,  the  plant 
of  the  California  Wine  Association,  etc.,  and  now  the 
chief  city  of  Contra  Costa  County,  Berkeley,  Oakland, 
Piedmont,  Alameda,  the  southern  arm  of  the  Bay  as  far 
as  beautiful  San  Jose  on  the  south,  while  so  close,  it 
seems  as  if  one  might  almost  toss  a  ball  into  a  maze 
of  miniature  streets  lies  San  Francisco  on  its  hills,  serene, 
indifferent  to  fate,  the  proud  mistress  of  the  Golden  Gate. 
All  these  places  —  and  many  that  I  have  not  named 
—  should  be  visited,  and  must  be,  ere  one  can  know 
California.  Oakland,  on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  bay, 
is  a  city  that  is  now  enjoying  its  business  and  commer- 
cial renaissance.  For  years  it  seemed  to  be  resting,  but 
during  the  past  eight  years  it  has  leaped  into  new  life 
and  surprised  itself  with  the  vigour  and  strength  of  its 
new-found  powers.  A  most  graphic,  powerful  and  fas- 
cinating account  of  the  growth  of  Oakland  and  its  subur- 
ban sister  of  Piedmont  is  given  by  Jack  London  in  his 
Burning  Daylight.  While  possessing  all  the  charm  of 
vivid  fiction  it  is  largely  based  on  facts,  and  thus  read 


In  and  Around  the  Golden  Gate        185 

gives   the  most   satisfactory  account  of  the  growth  of 
Oakland  that  has  ever  been  penned. 

The  city  has  built  a  majestic  city  hall  that  towers 
like  a  supreme  mountain  peak  above  its  fellows,  377  feet 
above  the  street;  and  it  has  a  magnificent  two  million 
dollar  hotel  that  is  a  pride  and  a  delight.  For  years  its 
water-front  was  dominated  by  the  Southern  Pacific  Com- 
pany. Then  by  a  happy  suit,  unintentionally  started,  the 
control  was  given  back  to  the  city.  The  result  is  that 
Oakland  is  now  reclaiming  hundreds  of  acres  of  low- 
watered  land  hitherto  useless  in  the  bay.  It  recently 
voted  bonds  for  over  two  millions  and  a  half  for  har- 
bour improvements  and  intends  soon  to  be  one  of  the 
greatest  shipping  ports  of  the  Pacific  Coast. 

Oakland  possesses  the  only  cotton  mills  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  all  the  California  grown  cotton 
is  here  manufactured  into  woven  goods.  Three  systems 
of  transcontinental  railways  give  passenger  and  traffic 
service  to  the  city,  1,607  trains  running  daily  in  and  out 
of  its  terminals.  It  is  unique  in  the  possession  of  a  water 
park  of  170  acres.  Lake  Merritt,  within  its  city  limits. 
Two  parks  line  its  shores  and  a  beautiful  boulevard 
makes  its  placid  waters  accessible  to  all. 

Berkeley  is  a  purely  university  residential  city,  and 
its  life  is  dominated  by  the  State  University.  Piedmont 
is  of  much  later  growth,  and  is  entirely  built  up  of  the 
fine  homes  of  the  wealthy.  Its  park  is  of  a  superior 
order  and  the  Art  Gallery,  one  of  the  best  in  California. 

Alameda  is  another  of  the  trans-bay  cities  that  cannotj 
be  ignored.  The  county  seat  of  Alameda  County,  it  has 
felt  the  recent  impulse  to  new  growth  experienced  so 
largely  throughout  the  State.  It  is  really  a  suburban 
city,  having  swift  and  frequent  electric  connection  with 
the  ferry-boats  to  San  Francisco,  with  the  added  advan- 


186     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

tage  of  a  rich  tributary  "  back  country."  The  location, 
however,  is  practically  an  island,  hence  it  has  the  perfect 
healthfulness  that  comes  from  perfect  drainage  and  a 
moving  salt  water  environment.  Much  of  its  commer- 
cial transportation  is  by  water,  and  it  is  acquiring  title 
to  all  its  water-front.  Being  so  highly  advantaged  in 
relation  to  the  Bay,  Alamedans  rejoice  in  boating,  yacht- 
ing, swimming  and  other  water  clubs,  girls  as  well  as 
boys  having  their  full  opportunities  in  these  safe  waters. 
Another  charm  is  found  in  the  great  number  of  house- 
boats that  anchor  in  the  quiet  waters  of  the  small  nooks 
and  bays  along  the  shore. 

This  is  also  a  large  feature  of  the  pleasant  life  of  the 
people  of  Tiburon,  Sausalito,  Belvidere  and  other  fa- 
voured locations  on  the  north  shore  of  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco.  Hundreds  of  people  quit  their  houses  in  the 
summer  months  and  move  to  their  "  pleasure  arks," 
where  they  at  once  become  aquatic  dwellers  with  all  the 
privileges  of  close  proximity  to  the  city  of  their  daily 
labour  or  nightly  enjoyment. 

The  peninsula  country,  south  of  San  Francisco,  is  fully 
deserving  a  chapter  in  this  book,  but  space  forbids.  There 
are  many  residence  cities  and  towns,  like  San  Mateo, 
Burlingame,  Redwood,  Palo  Alto,  Mountain  View  and 
Santa  Clara,  between  San  Francisco  and  San  Jose.  This 
latter  is  the  oldest  town  in  the  State,  having  been  founded 
as  a  Spanish  pueblo  in  November,  1777.  While  several 
Missions  were  established  prior  to  this  time,  this  was 
the  first  definite  pueblo  or  town.  The  chief  city  of  the 
Santa  Clara  Valley,  it  has  always  been  of  considerable 
importance,  as  the  surrounding  tributary  country  is  of 
the  richest  character.  It  possesses  a  fine  tourist  hotel, 
the  Vendome,  situated  in  its  own  park,  and  is  the  start- 
ing-point for  the  Lick  Observatory  on  Mt.  Hamilton. 


In  and  Around  the  Golden  Gate        187 


These  are  but  cursory  and  rapid  glimpses  of  some  of 
the  "  high  Hghts  "  that  catch  the  eye  as  one  glances 
around  the  region  of  the  Golden  Gate.  No  one  is  more 
aware  of  its  inadequacy  than  myself,  and  the  disap- 
pointed reader  must  realize  that  all  that  is  possible  in 
a  limited  work  of  this  description  is  to  give  him  the  out- 
line or  skeleton  which  he  must  fill  in  or  clothe  by  further 
investigation  and  mental  acquisition. 


CHAPTER    XII 

FROM    THE    STATE    CAPITAL    AT    SACRAMENTO    TO    MT. 
SHASTA 

Equally  romantic,  beautiful,  progressive  and  varied 
with  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  is  the  Sacramento  Valley. 
Though  not  quite  so  long  in  mileage  it  is  about  equal  in 
acreage,  being  nearly  two  hundred  miles  long  and  vary- 
ing in  width  up  to  sixty  miles.  It  has  passed  through 
the  same  history  as  its  southern  compeer.  First  granted 
by  the  Spanish  or  Mexican  government  in  vast  tracts, 
most  of  which  were  confirmed  when  it  came  into  the 
hands  of  the  United  States ;  then  long  used  as  mere 
cattle  ranges,  wild  pasture  and  for  wild  hay;  next  it 
became  the  scene  of  grain-growing  operations  on  a 
gigantic  scale.  Here  it  was  the  steam-plough  and  the 
twenty,  twenty-six,  thirty  horse-propelled  header  and 
thresher,  or  combined  harvester  as  it  is  now  called,  was 
invented  and  first  used,  and  here  for  the  mechanical 
manipulation  of  these  vast  areas,  steam  and  oil  burning 
engines  are  constantly  being  perfected  for  reducing  the 
labour  of  man. 

Now,  however,  most  of  the  large  ranches  have  been 
broken  up  and  subdivided  into  tracts  as  small  as  twenty, 
ten  and  even  five  acres.  A  vast  agricultural  population 
is  pouring  in  and  the  Sacramento  Valley  is  now  under- 
going the  greatest  transition  in  its  history.  One's  pen 
can  scarce  keep  up  with  the  marvellous  changes  that  a 
year  brings  forth,  and  even  to  Californians,  some  of  the 

188 


From  the  State  Capital  to  Mt.  Shasta  189 

developments  are  upon  lines  that  create  surprise  border- 
ing upon  incredulity. 

For  instance,  when  the  severe  frosts  of  19 12-13  ^^' 
tacked  the  citrus  crops  of  Southern  California,  two  or 
three  of  the  most  extensive  and  progressive  growers  left 
that  much  heralded  and  highly  favoured  section,  bought 
large  areas  in  the  foothill  regions  of  the  Sacramento 
Valley,  where  careful  observations  for  years  had  re- 
vealed thermal  belts  never  known  to  be  seriously  affected 
by  low  temperatures.  One  man  alone  proceeded  to  set 
out  five  thousand  acres  to  citrus  fruits,  most  of  which  is 
now  accomplished.  Here,  though  five  to  six  or  even 
seven  hundred  miles  north  of  his  former  orange  or- 
chards, he  will  secure  his  crops  nearly  two  months  earlier, 
and  thus  be  practically  assured  of  his  market  before 
frosts  are  at  all  likely  to  appear.  Orland,  nearly  a  hun- 
dred miles  further  north,  has  been  shipping  its  oranges 
for  several  years  by  Thanksgiving  Day,  and  receiving 
the  higher  prices  that  come  from  being  thus  early  in  the 
markets. 

The  natural  gateway  to  this  inland  empire  is  Sacra- 
mento, the  capital  of  the  State.  Formerly  in  the  heart 
of  a  grant  made  by  the  Mexican  Governor  Alvarado  to 
General  John  A.  Sutter,  in  1839,  which  became  the  ob- 
jective point  of  emigrants  to  California  before  the  dis- 
covery of  gold,  it  was  naturally  the  best  known  interior 
settlement  in  the  whole  of  California  when  that  wonder- 
ful find  occurred.  Add  to  this  that  Marshall  was  in 
Sutter's  employ  w^hen  the  gold  was  picked  up,  Sutter's 
Fort  ''as  his  home  place  was  called)  was  as  much  on  the 
lips  of  the  argonauts  as  was  San  Francisco.  The  city 
grew  up  near  by  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  was  named 
Sacramento  after  the  river.  The  securing  of  the  State 
capital    was    not   accomplished    without    effort,    several 


190     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

■ 

other  strong  rivals  for  the  honour  and  emolument  con- 
testing Sacramento's  claim.  But  the  matter  was  finally 
settled  by  the  act  of  1852.  In  1856  it  was  decided  to 
build  a  state  capitol,  btit  not  until  i860  was  work  begun. 
It  was  originally  limited  to  cost  not  more  than  half  a 
million  but  appropriations  grew  until  the  building  as  it 
now  stands  has  cost  not  less  than  seven  millions.  It  is 
one  of  the  handsomest  and  most  imposing  of  the  older 
state  capitols  of  the  country,  but  California  is  now 
growing  somewhat  ambitious  for  a  new,  larger  and  more 
modern  structure.  The  grounds  in  which  it  stands,  how- 
ever, are  beyond  compare.  A  park  of  thirty-three  acres, 
with  over  one  hundred  and  twenty  varieties  of  trees  and 
shrubs  gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  with  added 
varieties  in  the  half-acre  Memorial  Park  adjacent.  The 
trees  of  the  Memorial  Park  were  gathered  from  the  bat- 
tlefields of  the  Civil  War  and  other  places  of  fame  in 
American  history.  One  of  the  buildings  of  great  interest 
near  the  Capitol  is  the  State  Insectary.  It  has  been 
found  that  several  of  the  pests  which  afflict  the  citrus  and 
other  profitable  crop-bearing  trees  of  California  are 
preyed  upon  and  kept  practically  under  control  by  certain 
insects.  These  are  gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  world, 
and  here  bred  and  distributed  where  they  are  most 
needed.  To  many  visitors  it  is  an  unique  plant,  and 
when  they  learn  that  distinguished  entomologists  from 
France,  Spain,  Japan,  South  Africa,  the  Island  of  For- 
mosa, etc.,  have  visited  America  purely  to  study  the 
methods  followed  at  the  Sacramento  Insectary,  their 
respect  for  "  bug-breeding "  is  at  once  materially  in- 
creased. 

One  of  the  interesting  historic  spots  of  the  State  is 

1  Sutter's  Fort,  in  the  heart  of  the  city.     Built  soon  after 

General  Sutter's  arrival  in   1839,  it  saw  many  thrilling 


From  the  State  Capital  to  Mt.  Shasta   191 

pages  in  the  State's  early  history.  Here  the  remnants 
of  the  Donner  party  were  brought  after  their  fearful 
winter  at  the  lake  which  bears  their  name.  Here  Fre- 
mont came  and  consulted  with  the  doughty  Swiss  in 
regard  to  the  Bear  Flag  revolution,  and  seizing  the  coun- 
try for  the  United  States.  To  secure  lumber  for  Sutter's 
operations  Marshall  built  the  mill  and  constructed  the 
mill-race  at  Coloma,  on  the  American  River,  some  forty- 
five  miles  away,  as  is  elsewhere  recorded,  which  led  to 
the  discovery  of  gold.  This  discovery  ruined  Sutter, 
though  it  laid  the  foundations  upon  which  the  city  of 
Sacramento  was  later  built. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  State,  when  placer-mining 
was  at  its  height,  Sacramento  suffered  fearfully  from  the 
washing  down  into  and  filling  up  of  the  river  with  the 
sand,  silt  and  other  debris  carried  away  in  the  process. 
This  "  slickens  "  soon  bid  fair  to  cause  the  entire  destruc- 
tion of  the  city.  Litigation  was  commenced  to  prohibit 
placer-mining  as  a  menace  to  the  agricultural  interests 
of  the  State,  and  after  a  long  and  hardly  fought  series 
of  contests  the  latter  won  and  placer-mining  practically 
became  a  thing  of  the  past.  Sacramento,  however,  built 
great  levees  to  protect  itself  from  being  swamped  at 
flood  times  and  now  the  river  is  generally  perfectly  under 
control. 

Placer-mining  was  a  most  picturesque  method  of  ex- 
tracting the  gold  from  the  hillsides.  It  used  the  gigantic 
force  of  hydraulics,  skilfully  applied,  to  do  the  work  of 
thousands  of  men  in  digging  away  the  earth  and  washing 
it  down  to  the  sluice-boxes,  where  any  gold  it  contained 
was  arrested  on  the  riffles.  Water  was  conveyed  under 
great  head  into  brass  nozzles  like  those  used  by  our 
modern  fire  departments.  From  the  Southern  Pacific 
Railway  at  Dutch  Flat  one  may  see  the  effect  of  this 


192     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

style  of  mining.  The  whole  contour  of  the  country  was 
changed,  and  though  Nature  has  kindly  covered  up  many 
of  her  scars,  enough  still  remain  to  show  the  harshness 
of  the  treatment. 

Now,  however,  by  means  of  the  dredger  a  similar  up- 
heaval of  the  country  in  certain  districts  is  taking  place. 
At  Oroville  and  Chico  —  or  near  by  —  and  several  other 
localities  in  the  Sacramento  Valley,  it  is  being  success- 
fully used  to  extract  the  gold.  The  process  is  new, 
though  it  is  merely  a  modern  application  of  old  meth- 
ods. The  dredger  bites  into  the  face  of  the  country  with 
steel  buckets  which  run  on  an  endless  belt.  The  "  pay 
dirt  "  is  thus  carried  to  the  hopper,  where  the  stones  are 
sifted  out.  Water  then  washes  the  earth  over  the  riffles 
where  the  gold  is  caught.  By  damming  up  the  space 
occupied  by  the  dredger  there  is  no  escape  of  "  slickens  " 
to  fill  up  the  river-beds,  hence  the  old  complaint  against 
hydraulic  mining  is  not  raised.  But  as  this  process 
destroys  the  face  of  the  country  over  which  the  dredger 
passes,  leaving  the  uncovered  piks  of  boulders  like  bare 
skeletons  as  the  marks  of  its  passage,  there  are  those  who 
contend  that  it  is  of  such  [Permanent  injury  to  the  land 
that  it  should  be  prohibited.  Millions  of  dollars,  how- 
ever, are  now  taken  out  annually  by  this  process,  and 
there  would  undoubtedly  be  strong  opposition  to  any 
prohibitory  legislation. 

It  should  be  noted  that, .  while  to  those  w^ho  see  the 
land  after  a  dredger  has  gone  over  it  there  seems  no 
possibility  for  its  further  use,  experience  has  demon- 
strated that  it  can  profitably  be  planted  to  eucalyptus. 
The  dredger  overturns  the  earth  to  a  great  depth  and 
when  the  soil  is  replaced  the  boulders  are  generally  on 
top.  This  has  the  same  effect  as  extraordinarily  deep 
ploughing,  and  the  contention  is  that,  if  compelled,  the 


From  the  State  Capital  to  Mt.  Shasta  193 

dredgers  might  so  redeposit  the  soil,  making  it  sufficiently 
cover  the  rocks  as  to  put  an  end  to  even  the  temporary 
devastation  that  seems  inevitable.  In  the  case  referred 
to,  however,  the  eucalyptus  v^ere  planted  among  the 
rocks,  and  have  thrived  abundantly. 

It  is  chiefly  to  its  agricultural  and  fruit-growing  in- 
dustries and  the  development  of  the  small  ranch  or  farm 
out  of  the  vast  holdings  that  formerly  held  back  the 
Sacramento  Valley,  that  one  must  now  look  for  its  con- 
tinued material  advancement.  Vast  sums  of  money  are 
now  being  expended  by  great  corporations  and  private 
capitalists  in  putting  in  irrigation  systems  that  mean 
the  entire  change  of  thousands  of  acres  of  this  rich 
and  fertile  land.  Alfalfa  thrives  wonderfully  and  stock 
raising  and  dairy  farms  are  profitable. 

Hops,  too,  find  their  natural  habitat  in  the  Sacramento 
Valley.  Crops  to  the  extent  of  millions  of  pounds  are 
grown  annually  within  view  from  the  dome  of  the  Cap- 
itol at  Sacramento. 

It  is  a  surprise  to  many  to  learn  that  the  Sacramento 
Valley  is  the  largest  producer  of  almonds  in  the  world. 
Three  counties  alone  produce  more  than  all  the  rest  of 
California,  and  the  quality  is  exceptionally  fine,  the  nuts 
being  large,  rich  in  flavour  and  fine  in  texture. 

All  the  deciduous  fruits  grow  to  perfection  and  garden 
truck,  small  berries  and  asparagus  are  canned  by  the 
thousands  of  tons  as  well  as  shipped  for  the  great  mar- 
kets of  San  Francisco,  Oakland  and  other  large  cities. 

The  olive  thrives  well  almost  all  over  the  State,  but 
it  reaches  a  high  degree  of  perfection  in  the  Sacramento 
Valley.  Indeed  one  of  the  largest  producers  in  the 
world  is  a  woman,  who  by  personal  attention  and  meth- 
ods has  developed  a  wonderful  business.  The  olives  of 
California  are  seldom,  scarcely  ever,  picked  green.    They 


194     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

are  allowed  to  ripen  fully  on  the  trees.  This  develops 
a  rich  sweetness  and  a  food  value  totally  unknown  to  the 
green  olive  of  European  commerce,  and  the  eating  of 
which  is  confessedly  an  acquired  habit.  No  one  con- 
tends that  the  green  olive  has  the  slightest  food  value; 
it  is  merely  a  relish,  a  useless  and,  indeed,  harmful  lux- 
ury, as  it  is  indigestible.  But  the  ripe  olive  is  full  of 
nutriment,  besides  having  a  sweet  and  delicious  flavour, 
when  properly  cured.  The  California  habit  of  eating  the 
ripe  olive  as  a  food  is  extending  throughout  the  East 
with  increasing  rapidity,  and  the  result  is  the  speedy  en- 
largement of  the  olive  industry.  Olive  crops  have  al- 
ready been  contracted  for,  at  large  prices,  for  ten  and 
even  twenty  years  ahead,  and  a  vast  amount  of  new 
planting  is  being  done  annually.  There  are  few  sights 
more  beautiful  than  that  of  an  olive  orchard  when  the 
crop  is  ripe,  the  deep  brownish  black  of  the  fruit  con- 
trasting delightfully  with  the  silvery  green  of  the  leaves. 

At  Orland,  in  the  upper  portion  of  the  Sacramento 
Valley,  is  the  only  Calif ornian  manifestation  of  the  bene- 
ficial activities  of  the  United  States  Reclamation  Serv- 
ice. A  large  dam  was  constructed  in  the  Coast  Range, 
from  which  the  water  is  conveyed  to  fourteen  thousand 
acres  of  land  at  and  near  the  town. 

In  the  higher  foothills,  above  the  orange  belt,  apples 
and  pears  thrive  famously.  The  former  seem  to  need 
the  tang  of  a  little  winter  to  develop  their  juicy  qualities 
and  the  apples  of  this  valley  find  a  ready  market  because 
they  possess  those  desired  essentials. 

The  Sacramento  Valley  is  so  wide  in  some  portions 
that  it  has  two  and  even  more  lines  of  railway  to  supply 
its  needs,  one  on  the  east  side  and  the  other  on  the  west. 
It  is  also  blessed  with  abundant  water  transportation,  the 
Sacramento    and    Feather    Rivers    being   navigable    for 


From  the  State  Capital  to  Mt.  Shasta   195 

freight  and  passenger  steamers  as  high  up  as  Marysville, 
which  constantly  ply  to  and  fro  from  San  Francisco. 

Marysville,  like  Sacramento,  owes  its  origin  as  a  city 
to  the  influx  of  the  gold  seekers,  for  the  Feather  River, 
the  upper  reaches  and  the  tributaries  of  the  Sacramento 
were  rich  in  the  pi-ecious  nuggets  and  dust.  Chico  is 
another  of  the  famous  cities  of  the  valley,  having  been 
laid  out  by  General  John  Bidwell,  who  came  to  California 
in  1841  with  the  first  overland  wagon  train.  But  from 
one  end  to  the  other,  on  both  sides,  towns  and  cities  are 
growing  into  wealth  and  commercial  importance.  There 
are  ten  valley  counties  and  all  are  progressive  and  fully 
in  accord  with  the  modern  spirit  of  improvement  and 
highest  development,  and  to  do  them  justice  would  re- 
quire a  book  of  this  size  for  each  one.  And  in  addition 
there  are  counties  partially  or  wholly  back  in  the  Sierras 
overlooking  the  Sacramento  and  which  scenically  are  its 
chief  asset. 

Here  as  in  the  San  Joaquin,  the  valley  dwellers  are 
blessed  not  only  with  the  life-giving  water  from  the 
mountains,  but  they  find  in  them  their  constant  aesthetic 
delight,  their  scenic  enjoyment.  Amador,  El  Dorado, 
Placer,  Nevada,  Sierra,  Plumas  and  Shasta  are  all  moun- 
tain as  well  as  valley  counties.  How  rich  in  canyons 
and  ridges,  peaks  and  summits,  which  delight  the  eye 
and  stimulate  the  soul  of  man,  as  well  as  in  mines,  crops, 
pastures  and  herds,  few  strangers  to  them  can  conceive. 

Chief  of  all  the  mountain  peaks  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  State,  and  in  the  impressive  grandeur  of  its  soli- 
tary estate,  chief  of  all  California,  is  Mt.  Shasta,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  the  sentinel  and  guard  of  the  north- 
ern pass  into  the  Sacramento  Valley. 

Mount  Shasta  is  the  Fuji-San  of  California.  It  ha=; 
not  yet  been  made  sacred,  but  that  is  because  the  Cali- 


196     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

fornian  is  neither  as  religious  nor  practically  wise  as  is 
the  Japanese.  It  stands  out  digniiied,  solitary,  majestic, 
impressive,  fourteen  thousand  four  hundred  and  forty- 
four  feet  above  sea-level,  and  from  the  moment  one 
gains  his  lirst  glimpse  uf  it  in  ascending  the  Sacramento 
River  Canyon  vintil  he  bids  it  adieu  on  crossing  the 
Siskiyous  it  dominates  and  controls  him.  As  the  train 
winds  from  side  to  side  of  the  canyon,  and  the  cannon 
itself  makes  its  sinucni^  curves  in  the  heart  of  the  hills 
the  great  snow-clad  suinmit  appears,  first  on  one  side, 
then  on  the  other,  and  the  traveller  rushes  from  window 
to  window,  eager  not  to  lose  sis'ht  of  so  glorious  a 
mountain  altar  for  a  single  minute. 

An  altar  it  surely  is,  for  it  lifts  up  men's  hearts  to  the 
sun-lit  sky,  to  the  serenity  of  the  stars,  to  the  pure  blue 
of  the  atmosphere,  to  the  majesty  and  strength,  the  nour- 
ishment and  beauty  it  contains.  It  would  be  well  could 
ten  thousand  new  men  be  taken  daily  from  our  cities  and 
set  down  at  the  foot  of  such  a  mountain  as  Shasta  and 
bid  remain  there  for  a  lull  twenty-four  hours.  They 
should  see  a  sunrise  flame  on  the  summit  an  hour  before 
it  reached  the  valley;  watch  the  whole  process  so  won- 
derfully described  by  Joaquin  Miller : 

"  Where  the  Sun  first  lands  in  his  newness, 
And  marshals  his  beams  and  his  lances, 
Ere  down  to  the  vale  he  advances, 
With  visor  erect,  and  ride  swiftly 
On  the  terrible  night  in  history. 
On  the  terrible  night  in  his  way, 
And  stays  him,  and,  dauntless  and  deftly, 
Hews  out  the  beautiful  day 
With  his  flashing  sword  of  silver." 

They  should  watch  the  colourings,  changeful  and 
varied,  as  the  sun  makes  his  stately  march  through  the 
heavens.     They  should  hear  the  birds  sing  and  see  them 


From  the  State  Capital  to  Mt.  Shasta  197 

fly  to  and  fro,  up  and  down  in  their  simple  happiness; 
they  should  glimpse  the  soaring  eagle,  vulture  and  hawk 
high  in  the  flawless  heavens  and  know  the  ease  with 
which  God's  feather-clad  messengers  cleave  the  sky; 
they  should  smell  the  incense  of  cedar  and  pine,  fir  and 
tamarack,  spruce  and  juniper,  and  the  commingled  odour 
of  a  million  million  flowers  and  all  the  sweet  scents  of 
clover  and  timothy  and  bunch  grass  and  tules  as  they 
ascend  in  a  tribute  of  thankfulness,  praise  and  gratitude; 
they  should  hear  the  myriad  "  lobgesangs  "  of  ten  thou- 
sand times  ten  thousand  tiny  beings  of  earth  and  sky  all 
joining,  though  unconsciously,  in  the  glorious  paean  of 
melody  and  harmony;  then  they  should  see  the  master 
artist  paint  his  vivid  sunsets  —  not  a  fixed  canvas,  but 
a  moving  picture  of  divine  colourings,  splendid,  gor- 
geous, enthralling  —  and  finally  feel  the  sable  serenity 
of  night  at  a  kingly  mountain's  base. 

"  'Tis  midnight  now.     The  bent  and  broken  moon 
All  batter'd,  black,  as  from  a  thousand  battles, 
Hangs  silent  on  the  purple  walls  of  heaven." 

But  before  they  saw  the  sunset  I  would  demand  that 
they  climb  to  the  virgin  snow-fields  on  Shasta's  rugged 
sides,  and  see  the  husbanding  care  with  which  every 
snowflake  is  guarded,  packed  down,  stored  with  everv 
other  snowflake,  so  that  stormy  winds  cannot  wrest  them 
away  from  the  peaceful  beds  in  which  they  lie ;  then  I 
would  bring  them  to  springs  below,  bubbling  forth  from 
solid  rock,  out  of  soft  cienega,  or  trickling  from  sloping 
bank;  they  should  see  the  melting  snow  tumbling  down 
—  as  Major  Powell  graphically  phrases  it  —  "  the  moun- 
tain-sides in  millions  of  cascades.  Ten  million  cascade 
brooks  unite  to  form  ten  thousand  torrent  creeks;  ten 
thousand  torrent  creeks  unite  to  form  a  hundred  rivers 


198     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

beset  with  cataracts;    a  hundred  roaring  rivers  unite  to 
form  the  Colorado." 

To  a  lesser  extent  than  to  the  Colorado  these  words 
apply  to  the  Sacramento,  all  of  which  I  would  have  the 
city  men  see,  know  and,  as  far  as  possible,  understand. 

They  should  follow  the  brooks,  creeks,  and  smaller 
rivers  until  they  merge  into  the  dashing,  sparkling,  roar- 
ing McCloud  and  the  Sacramento.  Even  then  they 
should  not  rest,  for  I  would  urge  them  on  and  they 
should  see  the  water  taken  out  and  used  to  turn  the 
water-driven  dynamos  that  supply  the  light  and  power 
for  towns  and  cities  hundreds  of  miles  away,  thus  adding 
to  the  comfort  and  power  of  man;  and  then  they 
should  see  these  waters  poured  forth  into  giant  canals 
and  smaller  laterals,  through  head-gates  into  distributing 
ditches  where  trees  and  vegetables,  alfalfa  and  timothy 
by  the  thousands  of  acres,  hundreds  of  thousands,  eagerly 
drink  of  the  nourishing  stream  and  pour  forth  a  com- 
pensating flood  of  train-loads  of  almonds,  walnuts, 
peaches,  nectarines,  plums,  prunes,  oranges,  lemons,  and 
hay  for  the  feeding  of  the  sons  of  men  and  the  financial 
enrichment  of  their  producers. 

I  would  thus  practically  have  them  learn  the  nourish- 
ing power  of  a  mountain,  see  the  life-giving  streams  that 
flow  from  its  bosom,  grasp  and  fully  understand  why' 
the  Indian  calls  all  snow-tented  mountain  summits  the 
maternal  breasts  of  the  valleys  below.  Such  mountains 
receive  but  to  give.  They  glean  each  snowflake  from 
the  sky  and  eagerly  hoard  them  but  to  pour  them  forth 
in  generous  life-sustaining  flood  later  on,  when,  in  his 
ardour  of  wooing  the  Earth  to  be  fruitful,  the  Sun  would 
parch  and  dry  and  wither. 

Oh!  marvellous  wisdom  of  Nature;  divine  control- 
lings of  clouds  and  mountain  barriers,  of  rain-fall  and 


THE    SACRAMENTO    RI\ER. 


From  the  State  Capital  to  Mt.  Shasta  199 

snow-fall,  of  temperatures  and  elevations;  of  sunshine 
and  shadows.  Ardent  sunshine  lures  the  ocean's  waters 
to  soar  in  cloud-made  aeroplanes  o'er  valleys  and  foot- 
hills; mountain  barriers  arrest  their  eastern  progress 
and  pile  them  up  in  fleecy  billows  upon  an  amethystine 
sky;  barometric  pressures  raise  or  lower  temperatures 
and  rain  or  snow  falls  upon  the  receiving  heights ;  snow 
is  eagerly  hoarded  in  accumulating  banks ;  granite  sum- 
mits shadow  them  from  sun  and  wind ;  warmth  and  cold 
solidify  these  banks  from  fleecy  snow  to  close-packed 
neve  or  crystal  ice ;  ardent  heat  slowly  melts  neve  or  ice 
and  sends  tinkling  music  of  gentle  water's  flow  until 
roaring,  tumbling  creeks  have  formed  and  rivers  are 
made  to  flood  the  thirsty  valleys  a  hundred,  twice  a 
hundred  miles  away  with  vivifying  life  and  fructifying 
power. 

Should  the  insensate  mountain  surpass  man  in  its  in- 
telligent receiving  and  whole-hearted  giving?  Is  there 
here  no  analogy  for  man's  instruction?  Is  the  mountain 
to  be  a  nourishing  power  and  man  selfishly  to  absorb  for 
himself  all  he  receives? 

As  the  writer  of  the  Hebrew  proverbs  sent  man  to  the 
ant,  so  would  I  send  men  to  the  mountains  that  they 
might  learn  of  them  and  be  wise.  I  would  let  the  giving 
streams  sing  in  their  ears  the  eternal  truths  that  there 
will  he  tio  pockets  in  their  shrouds,  and  that 

"  All  they  can  hold  in  their  dead  cold  hands 
Is  what  they  have  given  away." 

Mount  Shasta  is  an  enduring  teacher  of  unselfish 
giving,  a  never-silent  asserter  of  the  truth  that  man  re- 
ceives but  to  give  —  he  is  God's  steward,  and  the  higher 
his  intellect  and  skill  allow  him  to  reach  into  the  blue 
of   the  heavens   to   arrest   the   wealth-laden   clouds,   the 


200     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

greater  is  his  responsibility  as  well  as  his  glorious  oppor- 
tunity to  give,  GIVE,  of  that  which  has  so  generously 
come  to  him. 

Is  there  no  romance  here?  Is  there  no  beauty?  Oh! 
romance  of  the  teachings  of  the  silent  snowladen  sum- 
mits ;  beauty  that  flows  from  the  generous  givings  of 
the  mountain-heights.  Many  a  blossom-laden  orchard, 
fruit-laden  tree,  smiling  field,  fertile  foot-hill,  prosperous 
farm,  happy  child,  thriving  farmer,  contented  wife,  with 
all  the  dainty,  robust,  exquisite,  rugged  beauty  and 
thrilling  or  quiet  romance  connected  therewith,  springs 
from  the  storm-^scarred  battlements  of  Mount  Shasta. 
Hence  we  hail  the  majestic  mountain  of  the  ages  as 
a  radiant  centre  of  Beauty  and  Romance. 

Even  one  day  of  such  experiences,  to  money-sordid 
men,  selfish  men,  haughty  men,  ignorant  men,  city  men, 
would  be  a  blessing,  a  revelation,  a  vision,  and  if  the 
one  day  could  be  made  thirty,  they  would  feel  in  them- 
selves new  impulses,  new  desires,  new  aspirations,  new 
ambitions  for  purer,  better,  more  helpful  things  than 
mere  victory  in  the  strife  of  trade  and  commerce. 

How  Shasta  has  stimulated  the  poet!  Joaquin  INIiller 
used  to  live  in  its  shadow.  One  of  his  earliest  books  he 
called  Shadozvs  of  Shasta;  and  one  of  his  first  poems 
was  commenced  'neath  its  inspiration.  In  and  around 
its  valleys  Keith  painted  some  of  his  greatest  pictures, 
and  Thomas  Starr  King  and  other  famous  orators  have 
gained  from  it  lessons  to  teach  to  their  fellows. 

The  easiest  approach  to  Shasta  is  on  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railway,  which  reaches  it  by  way  of  the  Sacra- 
mento Canyon.  There  is  also  an  automobile  road  cov- 
ering practically  the  same  ground.  Leaving  Redding  the 
valley  is  soon  merged  into  the  narrowing  canyon.  All 
the  way  up  the  scenery  is  increasingly  interesting,  and 


From  the  State  Capital  to  Mt.  Shasta  201 

one  desires  to  stop  at  a  score  places,  each  famous  to  its 
own  group  of  annual  visitors. 

But  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  delightful  and  restful 
places  of  the  Shasta  region  is  Castle  Crags  Resort.  It  is 
not  a  camping-out  place,  but  is  unique  in  that  it  consists 
of  log  cabins,  scattered  about  in  pleasing  confusion 
among  the  trees,  on  the  hilly  slopes,  around  a  common 
centre,  where  dining-room,  club-house,  social  hall,  etc., 
are  located. 

Castle  Crags  itself  —  from  which  the  resort  takes  its 
name  — ^  is  a  towering,  jagged  ridge  of  granitic  up- 
thrust,  rearing  its  bristling  spires  about  four  thousand 
feet  above  the  Sacramento  River,  —  which  is  here  at  an 
elevation  of  about  two  thousand  feet,  —  and  clearly  seen 
from  Castle  Crags  Resort,  Shasta  Springs,  Dunsmuir, 
Castella,  and  several  other  points  along  the  railway. 

The  formation  is  not  uncommon  in  the  High  Sierras, 
and  several  similar  masses  are  to  be  found,  as  for  in- 
stance. Cathedral  Spires  in  the  Yosemite,  and  the  Min- 
arets of  the  High  Sierras. 

At  Castle  Crags  the  granite  has  two  lines  of  cleavage, 
the  vertical,  which  makes  the  jagged  spires,  and  the 
transverse,  which  divides  it  into  blocks.  This  latter 
cleavage,  however,  cannot  clearly  be  seen  from  below. 
It  is  only  when  one  stands  near  by  that  the  block  divi- 
sions are  discernible. 

A  finely  engineered  and  easy  trail  has  been  made  from 
the  farm  to  the  foot  of  Castle  Dome.  This  is  the  most 
imposing  member  of  the  group,  and  has  a  shape,  when 
seen  from  the  southwest,  not  unlike  the  Half  Dome  of 
the  Yosemite  Valley.  The  other  principal  members  are 
sharp,  jagged  spires,  slightly  inclined  from  the  perpen- 
dicular. 

It  is  not  a  dangerous  feat  to  climb  to  the  summit  of 


202     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Castle  Dome,  yet  it  is  ticklish  for  one  unused  to  slippery 
granite  faces,  where  a  slip  or  a  misstep  may  mean  a  fall 
of  a  hundred  feet  or  more.  In  making  the  climb,  in 
August,  19 1 3,  when  I  came  within  about  twenty-five  to 
fifty  feet  of  the  summit,  I  was  alone  and  without  a  rope. 
It  was  an  exciting,  interesting,  stimulating  experience. 
Had  I  had  a  rope  to  aid  me  on  my  return  I  should 
have  made  the  summit.  After  climbing  up  a  fairly  steep 
rise  to  one  of  the  lesser  "  steps  ''  of  the  Dome  I  found 
a  cleft  up  which  I  might  have  come  with  ease.  I  used 
it  for  the  return  and  descended  in  a  minute  what  had 
taken  me  more  than  half  an  hour  to  climb.  It  gives  one 
a  sensation  almost  of  breathlessness  to  find  himself  sud- 
denly looking  down  from  a  narrow  shelf  —  say  five  or 
six  inches  wide  —  on  which  he  is  holding  by  one  foot, 
while  hi5  fingers  grasp  a  tiny  ridge  above,  to  a  depth  of 
one,  two  hundred  feet.  But  when  he  climbs  higher  still 
and  then  gets  a  sudden  glance  down  of  twice  the  height, 
he  must  keep  his  nerve  or  further  climbing  or  descent 
becomes  impossible.  None  but  the  clear-headed  and  self- 
controlled  should  attempt  such  simple  climbs  even  as  to 
the  top  of  Castle  Dome. 

From  the  porch  of  the  Casino  at  Castle  Crags  Resort 
one  secures  an  unusually  fine  and  rather  unique  view  of 
Mt.  Shasta.  The  view  is  up  the  Sacramento  Canyon, 
which  is  lined  on  either  side  with  a  wealth  of  trees  of 
both  evergreen  and  deciduous  growth.  Beyond  this, 
soaring  into  the  azure,  is  the  majestic  and  sublime  peak, 
none  of  its  wooded  lower  slopes  being  discernible.  It  is 
so  overpowering,  so  completely  filling  this  circumscribed 
outlook,  so  impressive  and  commanding  that  one  instinc- 
tively feels  as  the  farmer  did  on  seeing  a  rhinoceros  for 
the  first  time,  when  he  exclaimed :  "  There  ain't  no  such 
animal."     It  seems  so  ponderous,  so  positively  to  shut 


MT.    SHASTA,    LOOKING    UP    THE    SACRAMENTO   CANYON. 


From  the  State  Capital  to  Mt.  Shasta  203 

out  all  the  rest  of  the  world  that  one  part  of  you  pro- 
tests and  exclaims :  "  There  ain't  any  such  mountain." 

But  it  is  there,  and  it  grows  upon  you,  whether  seen 
from  this,  or  other  points  where  fuller  views  are  ob- 
tained, giving  its  incomparable  setting.  While  there  are 
many  remarkable  mountain  views  in  California,  and  the 
Sierras  afford  objects  for  years  of  study  and  pleasure, 
I  doubt  whether  any  worthier  objects  of  man's  attention 
can  be  found  than  Mt.  Shasta  and  its  surrounding  coun- 
try. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

FROM    SACRAMENTO    TO    KERN    THROUGH    THE    SAN    JOA- 
QUIN   VALLEY 

The  great  interior  valley  of  the  heart  of  California  is 
practically  divided  into  two  parts  by  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco.  The  northern  smaller  half  is  the  Sacramento 
Valley,  the  lower  larger  half  the  San  Joaquin  Valley. 

It  is  in  the  memory  of  hmidreds  of  people  still  living 
in  California  when  this  three  hundred  mile  long  valley 
]  was  a  cattle  pasture,  covered  with  millions  upon  millions 
of  poppies  and  other  native  flowers.  Then  the  gigantic 
gang-ploughs  were  put  upon  it,  and  ripped  up  the  broad 
acres  prior  to  the  planting  of  the  grain,  and  when  it  had 
sprung  up  and  ripened  the  marvellous  headers  were  in- 
vented to  cut  the  ripe  heads,  thrash  and  sack  them  all  in 
the  one  operation.  Did  you  ever  read  Frank  Norris's 
Octopus?  He  saw  these  ploughs,  headers  and  thresh- 
ing machines  at  work  and  drew  wonderful  pictures  of 
them  in  the  first  of  a  proposed  trilogy  of  novels  dealing 
with  "  the  epic  of  the  wheat." 

"  The  ploughs,  thirty-five  in  number,  each  drawn  by 
its  team  of  ten,  stretched  in  an  interminable  line,  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length.  They  were  arranged,  as  it 
were,  en  echelon,  not  in  file  —  not  one  directly  behind 
the  other,  but  each  succeeding  plough  its  own  width 
farther  in  the  field  than  the  one  in  front  of  it.  Each  of 
these  ploughs  held  five  shears,  so  that  when  the  entire 
company  wa/S  in  motion,  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 

204 


From  Sacramento  to  Kern  205 

furrows  were  made  at  the  same  instant.  At  a  distance, 
the  ploughs  resembled  a  great  column  of  field  artillery. 
Each  driver  was  in  his  place,  his  glance  alternating 
between  his  horses  and  the  foreman  nearest  at  hand. 
Other  foremen,  in  their  buggies  or  buckboards,  were  at 
intervals  along  the  line,  like  battery  lieutenants." 

Then  he  proceeds  with  graphic  ^skill  to  describe  the 
whole  process  of  ploughing.  It  is  a  series  of  wonderful 
word  moving  pictures.  Later  in  the  book  he  describes 
the  six-horse-team  grain  drills,  seeding  the  thousands  of 
acres  of  a  great  ranch,  "  fecundating  the  living  soil ; 
implanting  deep  in  the  dark  womb  of  the  Earth  the  germ 
of  life,  the  sustenance  of  a  whole  world,  the  food  of  an 
Entire  People." 

Here  is  his  picture  of  the  harvester:  "The  machine, 
shooting  a  column  of  thick  smoke  straight  upward,  vi- 
brating to  the  top  of  the  stack,  hissed,  clanked,  and 
lurched  forward.  Instantly,  motion  sprang  to  life  in  all 
its  component  parts ;  the  header  knives,  cutting  a  thirty- 
six  foot  swath,  gnashed  like  teeth;  beltings  slid  and 
moved  like  smooth  flowing  streams;  the  separator 
whirred,  the  agitator  jarred  and  crashed;  cylinders, 
augers,  fans,  seeders  and  elevators,  drapers  and  chaff- 
carriers  clattered,  rumbled,  buzzed,  and  clanged.  The 
steam  hissed  and  rasped;  the  ground  reverberated  a 
hollow  note,  and  the  thousands  upon  thousands  of  wheat 
stalks  sliced  and  slashed  in  the  clashing  shears  of  the 
header,  rattled  like  dry  rushes  in  a  hurricane,  as  they  fell 
inward,  and  were  caught  up  by  an  endless  belt,  to  dis- 
appear into  the  bov/els  of  the  vast  brute  that  devoured 
them. 

"  It  was  that  and  no  less.  It  was  the  feeding  of  some 
prodigious  monster,  insatiable,  with  iron  teeth,  gnashing 
and  threshing  into  the  fields  of  standing  wheat;   devour- 


^ 


206     California,  Bomantic  and  Beautiful 

ling  always,  never  glutted,  never  satiated,  swallowing  an 
entire  harvest,  snarling  and  slobbering  hi  a  welter  of 
warm  vapour,  acrid  smoke,  and  blinding,  plunging  clouds 
of  chaff.  It  moved  belly-deep  in  the  standing  grain,  a 
hippopotamus,  half-mired  in  river-ooze,  gorging  rushes, 
snorting,  sweating;  a  dinosaur  wallowing  through  thick, 
hot  grasses,  floundering  there,  croucliing,  grovelling 
there  as  its  vast  jaws  crushed  and  tore,  and  its  enormous 
gullet  swa.llowed,  incessant,  ravenous,  and  inordinate." 

But,  most  wonderful  and  powerful  of  all  pictures  of 
this  great  wheat  epic,  is  the  one  wherein  he  describes  its 
flow  down  the  big  steel  chute  into  the  hold  of  the  vessel 
that  is  to  carry  it  away  over  seas  to  the  hungry  hordes 
of  Europe.  This  description  is  interwoven  with  the 
horrible,  tragic,  retributive,  and  dramatic  end  of  one  of 
the  characters  of  the  story,-  but  it  is  one  of  those  pas- 
sages, once  read,  can  never  be  forgotten. 

And  it  was  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  and  the  Sacra- 
mento Valley  that  made  possible  these  descriptions.  The 
discovery  that  the  wheat  harvest  might  bring  into  Cali- 
fornia more  money  than  the  gold  taken  from  her  mines 
was  the  impact  behind  the  impulse  to  plant  wheat,  and 
then  this  machinery  "  had  to  be  "  invented  to  make  pos- 
sible its  cultivation  and  barv^esting  on  so  vast  a  scale. 
Without  this  wheat  development  in  California  The  Octo- 
pus and  The  Pit,  of  Fnank  Norris,  could  never  have  been 
written. 

There  were  portions  of  the  Valley  of  the  San  Joaquin, 
however,  where  grain  did  not  grow  as  well  as  others. 
I  remember,  thirty  or  more  years  ago,  seeing  herds  of 
antelope  come  down  from  the  mountains  where  populous 
streets  of  thriving  cities  now  stand,  and  until  very  re- 
cently the  jack-rabbits  of  the  uncultivated  portions  of  the 
valley  were  such  a  menace,  and  actually  did  so  much 


From  Sacramento  to  Kern 207 

damage  to  the  growing  crops  near  by  that  "  rabbit 
drives "  were  annually  organized  for  their  slaughter, 
and,  if  possible,  entire  extermination.  These  drives 
were  remarkable.  Under  the  direction  of  skilled  mar- 
shals the  assembled  ranchers  in  buggies,  on  horseback, 
mule  or  buiro-back,  and  afoot,  took  up  their  stations, 
and  at  given  signals  moved  forward.  "  From  off  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  at  first  apparently  empty  of  all 
life,  and  seemingly  unable  to  afford  hiding-place  for  so 
much  as  a  field-mouse,  jack-rabbits  started  up  at  every 
moment  as  the  line  went  forward.  At  first,  they  ap- 
peared singly  and  at  long  intervals;  then  in  twos  and 
threes,  as  the  drive  continued  to  advance.  They  leaped 
across  the  plain,  and  stopped  in  the  distance,  sitting  up 
with  straight  ears,  then  ran  on  again,  were  joined  by 
others;  sank  down  flush  to  the  soil  —  their  ears  flat- 
tened; started  up  again,  ran  to  the  side,  turned  back 
once  more,  darted  away  with  incredible  swiftness,  and 
were  lost  to  view  only  to  be  replaced  by  a  score  of  others. 

"  Gradually,  the  number  of  jacks  to  be  seen  over  the 
expanse  of  stubble  in  front  of  the  line  of  teams  in- 
creased. Their  antics  were  infinite.  No  two  acted  pre- 
cisely alike.  Some  lay  stubbornly  close  in  a  little  de- 
pression between  two  clods,  till  the  horses'  hoofs  were 
all  but  upon  them;  then  sprang  out  from  their  hiding- 
place  at  the  last  second.  Others  ran  forward  but  a  few 
yards  at  a  time,  refusing  to  take  flight,  scenting  a 
greater  danger  before  them  than  behind.  Still  others, 
forced  up  at  the  last  moment,  doubled  with  lightning 
alacrity  in  their  tracks,  turning  back  to  scufile  between 
the  teams,  taking  desperate  chances.  As  often  as  this 
occurred,  it  was  the  signal  for  a  great  uproar. 

" '  Don't  let  him  get  through ;  don't  let  him  get 
through.' 


208     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

"  '  Look  Gilt  for  him,  there  he  goes.' 

"  Horns  were  blown,  bells  rung,  tin  pans  clamorously 
beaten.  Either  the  jack  escaped,  or  confused  by  the 
noise,  darted  back  again,  fleeing  away  as  if  his  life  de- 
pended on  the  issue  of  the  instant.   .  .  . 

"  By  noon  the  number  discernible  was  far  into  the 
thousands.  What  seemed  to  be  ground  resolved  itself, 
when  seen  through  glasses,  into  a  maze  of  small,  mov- 
ing bodies,  leaping,  ducking,  doubling,  running  back  and 
forth  —  a  wilderness  of  agitated  ears,  white  tails  and 
twinkling  legs.  The  outside  wings  of  the  curved  line 
of  vehicles  began  to  draw  in  a  little. 

"  As  the  day  advanced,  the  rabbits,  singularly  enough, 
became  less  wild.  When  flushed,  they  no  longer  ran  so 
far  nor  so  fast,  limping  off  instead  a  few  feet  at  a  time, 
and  crouching  down,  their  ears  close  upon  their  backs. 
Thus  it  was  that,  by  degrees,  the  teams  began  to  close 
up  on  the  main  herd.  It  was  no  longer  thousands,  it  was 
tens  of  thousands.     The  earth  wias  alive  with  rabbits. 

"  Denser  and  denser  grew  the  ithrong.  In  all  direc- 
tions nothing  was  to  be  seen  but  the  loose  mass  of  the 
moving  jacks.  The  horns  of  the  crescents  of  teams  be- 
gan to  contract.  Far  off  the  corral  came  into  sight.  The 
disintegrated  mass  of  rabbits  commenced,  as  it  were,  to 
solidify,  to  coagulate.  At  first,  each  jack  was  some  three 
feet  distant  from  his  nearest  neighbour,  but  this  space 
diminished  to  two  feet,  then  to  one,  then  to  but  a  few 
inches.     The  rabbits  began  leaping  over  one  another. 

"  Then  the  strange  scene  defined  itself.  It  was  no 
longer  a  herd  covering  the  earth.  It  was  a  sea,  whipped 
into  confusion,  tossing  incessantly,  leaping,  falling,  agi- 
tated by  unseen  forces.  At  times  the  unrespected  tame- 
ness  of  the  rabbits  all  at  once  vanished.  Throughout 
certain  portions  of  the  herd  eddies  of  terror  abruptly 


SEEDLESS    GR,A.PES. 


From  Sacramento  to  Kern  209 

burst  forth.  A  panic  spread ;  then  there  would  ensue 
a  bhnd,  wild  rushing  together  of  thousands  of  crowded 
bodies,  and  a  furious  scrambling  over  backs,  till  the 
scuffing  thud  of  innumerable  feet  over  the  earth  rose  to 
a  reverberating  murmur  as  of  distant  thunder,  here  and 
there  pierced  by  the  strange,  wild  cry  of  a  rabbit  in  dis- 
tress. 

"  The  line  of  vehicles  was  halted.  To  go  forward 
now  meant  to  trample  the  rabbits  underfoot.  The  drive 
came  to  a  standstill  while  the  herd  entered  the  corral. 
This  took  time,  for  the  rabbits  were  now  too  crowded  to 
run.  However,  like  an  opened  sluice-gate,  the  extending 
flanks  of  the  entrance  of  the  corral  slowly  engulfed  the 
herd.  The  mass,  packed  tight  as  ever,  by  degrees  dimin- 
ished, precisely  as  a  pool  of  water  when  a  dam  is  opened. 
The  last  stragglers  went  in  with  a  rush,  and  the  gate  was 
dropped."  ^ 

It  is  needless  to  quote  this  forceful  and  graphic  de- 
scription further.  The  slaughter  of  Ihc  innocent,  but 
fearfully  destructive  pests,  was  essential  to  the  success 
of  the  farmers.  They  are  now  well  under  control,  .and 
the  rabbit  drive  is  practically  a  thing  of  the  past. 

To  return  now  to  the  wheat-growing.  Ordinary 
farmers,  even  those  who  worked  on  the  largest  scale,  in 
the  East  and  in  Europe,  never  conceived  tlie  extent  of 
some  of  these  vast  ranches  in  the  San  Joaquin. 

After  many  years  of  great  harvests,  almost  with  start- 
ling suddenness  it  was  discovered  that  if  this  land  had 
water  it  was  one  of  the  most  wonderful  natural  vine- 
yards in  the  world.  All  around  Fresno  vines  were 
planted  out,  and  to-day  in  that  one  county  there  are  o^'er 
fifty  million  vines,  most  of  them  in  bearing",  wine,  table 

*  From  The  Octopus,  by  Frank  Norris,  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  Garden 
City. 


210     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

or  raisin  grapes.  Muscats  and  malagas,  sultanas  and 
Thompson's  seedless  grow  to  such  perfection,  and  ac- 
cumulate such  rich  flavour  and  sweetness  as  to  have 
made  Fresno  raisins  world  famous,  and  its  output  twice 
as  large  as  that  of  the  whole  of  Spain.  Its  annual  pro- 
duction is  between  eighty  and  ninety  million  pounds. 

To  encourage  the  industry  and  educate  the  people  of 
the  United  States  as  to  the  food  value,  as  well  as  deli- 
ciousness  of  Fresno  raisins,  Raisin  Day  was  inaugurated, 
to  be  celebrated  annually  on  April  30th.  The  idea  has 
taken  hold  famously.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  pack- 
ages of  raisins  are  distributed  freely  in  the  cities  of  the 
East,  millions  of  pieces  of  literature  distributed,  and  the 
consumption  of  raisins  thereby  increased  wonderfully. 

In  the  thousand  years  of  the  industry  in  Europe  the 
idea  of  the  seeded  raisin  was  never  evolved, — even  if 
conceived.  But  within  twenty  years  after  the  beginnings 
of  raisin  growing  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  an  invent- 
ive genius  devised  a  machine  for  taking  out  the  seeds, 
and  now  in  the  neighbourhood  of  thirty-five  thousand 
tons  are  seeded  and  packed  annually  in  Fresno  County 
alone. 

It  is  a  wonderful  sight  to  see  the  vineyards  change  as 
the  year  progresses.  Early  in  the  season  the  vines  are 
leafless,  the  rugged,  gnarled  centre  sending  out  its  long 
brown  stems,  ten,  twenty,  or  more  feet  long.  Then  pru- 
ning day  comes,  and  practically  the  whole  of  these  stems 
are  removed.  Now  the  vines  look  like  dead  stumps, 
ready  to  be  grubbed  out ;  but  after  thorough  ploughing, 
irrigation  and  fresh  cultivation,  the  springtime  sees  them 
begin  to  send  forth  new  shoots,  which  by  and  by  are 
covered  with  leaves.  In  May  the  grapes  are  well  set  and 
then  they  grow  rapidly,  the  whole  vine  becoming  more 
beautiful   in  its  richly  coloured  leafage  as  the  months 


From  Sacramento  to  Kern  211 

progress.  This  is  the  period  that  the  vineyards  impress 
one  as  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  —  the  thousands  of 
acres  that  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  possesses  demanding 
instinctive  homage. 

When  the  grapes  are  fully  ripe  they  are  picked  and 
placed  on  trays  in  the  sun  to  dry.  To  aid  this  process 
they  are  occasionally  turned  over.  Being  of  different 
sizes  some  dry  out  thoroughly  while  others  are  quite 
moist.  To  equalize  the  moisture  they  are  dumped  into 
"  sweat  boxes,"  where  they  stand  and  sweat  for  several 
days,  when  they  are  removed  to  the  packing-house, 
where  the  fine  clusters  are  sorted  out  and  packed,  the 
lowi?r  grades  assorted,  and  those  that  are  to  be  seeded 
are  sent  through  that  process.  Then  through  the  whole- 
salers they  are  distributed  to  the  dealers  and  thus  come 
into  the  hands  of  the  people. 

Wine  grapes  on  the  other  hand  are  picked  and  shipped 
in  carloads  to  the  winery  where  they  undergo  the  vari- 
ous processes  of  conversion  into  wine.  That  this  indus- 
try is  not  yet  dead  in  California  is  proven  by  the  fact  that 
in  Fresno  County  alone  there  are  twenty-seven  wineries 
and  twenty-nine  distilleries,  some  of  them  among  the 
largest  in  the  world. 

One  of  the  show  places  of  the  Fresno  region  is  Kear- 
ney Park,  bequeathed  to  the  University  of  California  as 
an  irrigated  experimental  farm,  by  its  founder,  Theodore 
Kearney.  It  is  reached  by  a  magnificent  palm-lined  ave- 
nue, eleven  miles  long,  and  comprises  five  thousand  one 
hundred  and  eighty-two  acres,  of  which  fifty  are  in 
oranges,  twenty-five  in  olives,  eight  hundred  and  fifty  in 
Muscat  grapes,  and  four  thousand  in  alfalfa  and  grain. 

All  the  counties  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  are  now 
reaping  the  rich  rewards  of  irrigation  and  the  breaking 
up  of  the  large  cattle  and   grain   ranches   into  smaller 


212     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

holdings.  Stockton,  in  San  Joaquin  County,  is  one  of 
the  oldest  American  towns  in  the  State.  It  is  in  the  heart 
of  a  thriving  farming  country,  some  of  which  is  re- 
claimed land  from  the  delta  of  the  San  Joaquin  River 
and  its  tributaries.  In  this  county  alone  there  flow  the 
San  Joaquin,  Calaveras,  IMokelumne  and  Cosumnes  Riv- 
ers. All  of  these  rivers  brought  down  from  the  moun- 
tains vast  deposits  of  sand  and  silt.  These  accumulated 
and  in  the  centuries  filled  up  vast  areas,  one  of  which  was 
found  to  be  marsh  land  covered  with  tules.  This  was 
valueless,  and  yet  examination  found  it  rich  in  vegetable 
matter  from  six  to  sixty  feet  deep.  Reclamation  projects 
were  at  once  undertaken  on  a  large  scale,  levees  built  to 
keep  out  the  water  at  flood  periods,  and  the  breaking  up 
of  the  tule  roots  and  planting  to  vegetables  and  grains 
begun.  The  results  have  been  man^ellous.  The  figures 
are  astounding.  I  have  seen  asparagus  beds  covering 
thousands  of  acres,  celery  occupying  a  whole  island,  and 
whole  sections  in  red  onions.  \\'hen  it  is  also  known 
that  from  two  thousand  to  four  thousand  pounds  of 
asparagus  are  taken  from  one  acre,  the  fertility  of  the 
soil  may  be  understood.  It  is  from  this  region  that  a 
large  part  of  the  tender  and  tasteful  asparagus  of  Cali- 
fornia comes,  and  it  is  shipped  out  fresh  and  in  cans  by 
the  hundreds  of  tons.  In  one  season  the  crop  amounted 
to  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars. 

Lodi,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  centre  of  a  great  grape- 
growing  country.  The  flaming  Tokay  does  remarkably 
well  here,  and  over  two  thousand  five  hundred  acres  are 
planted  alone  to  table  grapes.  Last  year  nearly  three 
thousand  cars  of  these  grapes  were  shipped  from  the  one 
town  of  Lodi  to  Eastern  markets. 

Unlike  most  California  counties  this  of  San  Joaquin 
is  plentifully  supplied  with  water  as  well  as  rail  traris- 


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ENTR.A.NCE    TO    KEARNJ:Y    PARK. 


From  Sacramento  to  Kern  213 

portation.  The  San  Joaquin  and  its  affluents  are  a  tre- 
mendous help  to  commerce.  They  form  a  perfect  maze 
of  waterways  through  the  delta  region  and  freight  traffic 
alone  is  worth  fully  fifteen  millions  of  dollars  annually, 
and  one  firm  that  uses  launches  for  passenger  traffic 
carried,  in  19 12,  more  people  than  did  the  Pacific  Mail 
Steamship  Co.,  on  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Yet  this  county 
is  not  backward  in  its  highways.  In  1909  it  bonded  itself 
for  nearly  two  millions  for  good  roads,  and  is  now  work- 
ing hand  in  hand  with  the  State  Highway  Commission 
for  the  further  development  of  its  road  system. 

Sunny  Stanislaus  is  an  equally  progressive  county, 
though,  until  its  irrigation  systems  were  well  under  way 
and  its  large  ranches  broken  up  into  smaller  holdings  its 
advancement  was  retarded.  Now  the  Modesto-Turlock, 
Patterson  and  other  irrigation  systems  have  completely 
changed  the  character  of  the  country.  It  is  a  joy  and 
a  delight  to  ride  over  finely  paved  county  roads  and  State 
highways  and  see  the  number  of  prosperous  farms 
springing  into  life.  Little  more  than  ten  years  ago  the 
Modesto  district  was  practically  one  wheat  field  of 
eighty-two  thousand  acres.  A  few  people  of  vision  felt 
that  while  wheat  was  necessary  and  reasonably  profitable 
the  land  could  be  made  to  give  forth  ten  times  as  much 
if  properly  irrigated,  and  the  water  of  the  Stanislaus, 
Tuolumne  and  San  Joaquin  Rivers  were  waiting  to  be 
poured  on  to  the  thirsty  land.  It  has  taken  years  of  hard 
work  and  expensive  litigation  to  accomplish  this,  but 
the  change  is  already  made  and  Sunny  Stanislaus  is  not 
a  mere  pretty  mode  of  verbal  designation,  but  applies  to 
the  prosperous  rancher's  facial  expression  as  he  sees  his 
rich  crops  being  hauled  to  market.  Lands  have  increased 
ten  times  in  value  and  are  paying  far  more  heavily  than 
of  yore.     Vegetables  of   every  kind   thrive  abimdantly 


214     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

and  thousands  of  dozens  of  cans  of  peas,  tomatoes, 
pumpkins,  etc.,  are  put  up  annually. 

The  Patterson  region  is  one  great  green  alfalfa  and 
grain  field,  flanked  with  fig,  almond,  and  olive  orchards. 
Stock  is  raised  and  fattened  here,  and  the  dairies  are 
among  the  most  famous  in  the  State.  It  has  developed 
in  the  past  few  years,  under  a  pumping  system  of  irriga- 
tion, one  share  of  stock  in  the  water  company  being  sold 
with  each  acre  of  ground.  Thus  when  the  land  is  three- 
fourths  sold  the  water  company  automatically  comes  into 
the  possession  of  the  land  owners. 

Merced,  Madera,  Tulare,  Kings,  and  Kern  Counties 
all  have  the  same  truthful  and  joyous  song  to  sing,  with 
more  or  less  local  variations.  All  are  prosperous,  all 
beautiful,  but  some  run  up  into  the  base,  and  higher,  of 
the  Sierra  Nevadas,  and  their  foothills  are  found  to  be 
"  thermal  belts  "  where  citrus  fruits  grow  to  perfection. 
Others  have  developed  great  oil  wells  that  are  the  sur- 
prise of  the  w^orld,  as  they  have  added  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions to  the  wealth  of  California.  The  one  county  of 
Kern  alone,  produced  in  19 lo,  nearly  forty-one  million 
barrels  of  oil,  or  about  one-eighth  of  the  world's  whole 
production.  Certain  gushers  have  poured  out  their 
wealth  in  such  profusion  and  with  such  physical  power 
as  to  render  impossible  the  most  strenuous  efforts  of 
expert  engineers  to  curb  them.  One,  the  Lakeview 
Gusher,  for  nearly  three  months  poured  out  its  oil  in  an 
uncontrolled  flood  of  over  fifty  thousand  barrels  a  day, 
with  a  deafening  roar  that  could  be  heard  for  many 
miles. 

Another  older,  and  at  one  time  greater,  industry,  was 
that  of  turning  the  centuries-old  trees  —  or  at  least  they 
looked  like  it  —  of  the  Sierra  Nevadas  into  lumber. 
Great  areas  of  forest  were  logged  in  the  mountains,  and 


From  Sacramento  to  Kern  215 

the  logs  brought  down  to  the  mill  by  ox  teams  in  rude 
and  heavy  wagons,  or  in  sleds  drawn  over  the  early 
snows,  or,  in  later  years,  "  snaked  "  by  dogs  and  chains 
attached  to  an  endless  cable  worked  by  a  donkey  engine. 
Here  they  were  swiftly  ripped  into  planks  and  timbers, 
joists  and  studs.  To  get  this  finished  lumber  in  the  val- 
ley used  to  be  an  expensive  task  of  hauling  in  wagons. 
Then  some  one  invented  the  lumber  flume  in  Nevada, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  it  was  used  in  the  San  Joaquin 
Valley.  A  water  supply  wais  found,  and  the  liquid  stored 
in  a  reservoir  until  there  was  a  good  "  head  "  for  con- 
stant use.  The  flume  was  constructed  of  wood,  and  it 
was  soon  discovered  that  when  the  sides  were  sloped, 
making  the  flume  V-shaped,  if  the  lumfcer  stuck  for  any 
cause  in  floating  down,  a  slight  rise  in  the  water  soon 
floated  it  free  and  allowed  it  to  escape  the  obstruction. 
It  was  thus  carried  long  distances,  .and  down  precipitous 
places,  and  though  the  original  cost  O'f  building  the  flume 
was  great  the  saving  over  the  old  method  of  transpor- 
tation was  so  vast  that  if  there  was  anything  like  a  large 
amount  of  lumber  to  be  conveyed  the  flume  paid  for  iteelf 
over  and  over  again.  Flumes  were  built  ten,  twenty, 
thirty  and  mare  miles,  over  precipitous  clifYs,  across  deep 
ravines,  over  wild,  rough  and  rugged  country  where  a 
road  could  never  have  been  constructed,  and  the  lumber 
thus  transported  to  the  nearest  railway.  On  arriving  at 
its  destination,  men  stood  on  platforms,  ready  to  seize  it 
and  drag  it  into  piles  from  whence  it  was  sorted  and 
distributed  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of  the 
trade.  The  water,  having  served  its  useful  purpose,  was 
then  sold  for  irrigation  purposes  and  thus  far  more  than 
paid  for  itself.  This  fluming  process  may  still  be  seen  at 
several  of  the  "  receiving  "  or  "  feeding  "  stations  in  the 
Sierras  or  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley.     Once  in  a  while 


216     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  lumber  jacks  ride  in  a  rudely  constructed  tlume-boat 
down  the  flume.  It  is  an  experience  never  to  be  for- 
gotten, especially  if  the  flume  i's  built  high  on  stilts  in 
places,  as  it  generally  is,  or  has  some  desperately  wild 
pitch,  as  occasionally  happens.  The  practice,  however, 
is  not  encouraged  by  the  lumber  merchants  and  produ- 
cers, on  account  of  the  great  risk  to  human  life. 

To  the  lover  of  the  romantic  and  beautiful  in  scenery 
one  of  the  chief  charms  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  —  to 
use  an  Hibernianism  —  is  its  mountains.  The  Coast 
Range  on  the  west  is  a  stepping-stone  from  the  sands  of 
the  Pacific  Shore  to  the  higher,  grander  and  more  ma- 
jestic Sierra  Nevada  range  on  the  east.  The  Yosemite 
and  Hetch-Hetchy  Valleys  are  reached  from  the  San 
Joaquin  Valley,  the  western  gateway  being  from  ]\lerced, 
at  which  point  the  Yosemite  Valley  Railway  connects 
with  the  Santa  Fe  and  Southern  Pacific.  Then  a  little 
further  to  the  south,  from  Sanger,  PoTterville,  Visalia, 
or  Lemon  Cove,  one  may  leave  for  the  Grant  Forest  — 
one  of  the  most  southerly  group  of  Sequoia  Giganfea,  the 
California  Grove,  the  Grant  National  Park,  beyond  which 
are  the  Kings  and  Kern  River  Canyons  and  Alps,  de- 
scribed briefly  in  another  chapter.  These  are  scenic  re- 
gions as  yet  unknown  to  the  major  portion  even  of  the 
people  of  California,  so  preoccupied  have  they  been  in  the 
development  of  their  lands,  and  the  choice  of  mountain, 
canyon,  forest,  ocean  and  island  scenery  being  so  exten- 
sive. Yet  these  canyon  valleys  almost  equal  the  Yose- 
mite and  are  deJstined,  ultimately,  to  be  quite  as  famous. 
It  is  in  this  region,  in  a  creek  tributary  to  Kern  River, 
that  the  golden  trout  was  found.  The  scientific  experts 
of  the  United  States  Government  grew  enthusiastic  over 
it,  and  designated  it  a  marvellously  beautiful  trout. 

Kearsage    Pass,    twelve    thousand    and    fifty-six    feet 


From  Sacramento  to  Kern  217 

above  sea  level,  and  one  of  the  highest  of  the  Sierra 
Nevadas,  is  in  this  region.  It  is  so  narrow  a  ridge  that 
one's  horse  may  stand  with  forefeet  on  the  eastern  side, 
and  hind  feet  on  the  western.  The  marvellous  contrast 
between  the  eastern  and  western  slopes  is  nowhere  made 
clearer  than  at  this  point,  the  descent  to  the  east  being 
swift  and  rocky,  while  that  on  the  west  is  gradual,  and 
richly  clad  with  verdure. 

The  Sierras  overlooking  the  northern  portion  of  the 
San  Joaquin  Valley  are  rich  in  reminiscences  immortal- 
ized in  the  works  of  Bret  Harte,  Mark  Twain,  Joaquin 
Miller  and  others,  for  who  can  forget  The  Jumping  Frog 
of  Calaveras,  The  Society  upon  the  Stanislaus,  The  La- 
test Chinese  Outrage,  Truthful  James,  Thompson  of 
Angels,  and  the  rest  ?  Hence  both  in  romance  and  beauty 
the  San  Joaquin  Valley  makes  great  claims  upon  the  in- 
terest of  all  who  come  within  its  confines. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

4  THE    YOSEMITE    VALLEY 

"  Ye  who  love 
The  shaggy  forests,  fierce  delights 
Of  sounding  waterfalls,  of  heights 
That  hang  like  broken  moons  above, 
With  brows  of  pine  that  brush  the  sun, 
Believe  and  follow. 

"  Come,  lovers,  come,  forget  your  pains! 

I  know  upon  this  earth  a  spot 
Where  clinking  coins,  that  clank  as  chains, 

Upon  the  souls  of  men,  are  not; 
Nor  man  is  measured  for  his  gains 
Of  gold  that  stream  with  crimson  stains. 

"  There  snow-topp'd  towers  crush  the  clouds 

And  break  the  still  abode  of  stars, 
Like  sudden  ghosts  in  snowy  shrouds, 

New  broken  through  their  earthly  bars. 
And  condors  whet  their  crooked  beaks 
On  lofty  limits  of  the  peaks." 

.  Famed  in  song"  and  story,  the  theme  of  many  an 
'  orator's  eloquence,  the  subject  of  the  artist's  highest 
endeavours,  the  Mecca  of  the  sight-seer,  the  paradise  of 
the  geological,  arboreal,  and  botanical  student,  the  Yo- 
semite  Valley  has  occupied  a  unique  position  of  high 
allurement  even  in  California,  the  land  of  allurement. 

Why  is  it  that  the  Yosemite  so  proudly  reigns  su- 
preme in  the  hearts  of  men?  That  its  charms  attract 
more  to-day  than  they  ever  did  ?  It  is  a  sign  of  genuine 
goodness  that  its  attractiveness  never  fails.     As  Joseph 

218 


The  Yosemite  Valley 219 

Le  Conte  used  to  say :  "  That  picture  only  is  good  that 
one  can  see  again  and  again  with  increasing  pleasure. 
That  book  only  is  good  that  one  can  read  again  and 
again  with  increasing  pleasure."  And  the  same  with 
music,  drama,  oratory  and  architecture.  The  same  prin- 
ciple applies  to  scenery,  with  the  incomparable  advantage 
added  thereto,  that  the  artist  is  not  human  but  Divine. 
There  seems,  however,  in  the  Yosemite,  a  power  that 
calls  potently  year  after  year  to  those  who  are  familiar 
with  its  grandeurs  and  glories.  They  return  to  it,  they 
climb  its  rocky  trails  yearly,  they  stand  in  awe  and 
admiration,  or  gently  expressed  delight,  before  falls  and 
cascades,  and  laugh  with  glee  as  they  did  when  they 
first  saw  the  foaming,  dancing,  glancing  waters  of  the 
Happy  Isles.  The  sunshine,  glinting  through  the  pines 
and  other  evergreens,  gives  dreams  of  supernal  mys- 
tery and  beauty  now  as  powerfully  as  when  first  seen, 
El  Capitan  possesses  the  soul  with  serene  majesty  as 
much  as  ever. 

Ah,  there  is  the  secret.  Yosemite  becomes  one's 
friend,  and  it  is  a  friend  of  many  and  varied  accomplish- 
ments. It  is  many  sided,  much  gifted,  and  in  that  fact 
lies  its  chief  power  to  gain  and  hold  friends. 

I  remember  when  I  first  saw  Yosemite.  My  sister  and 
I  had  driven  in  a  buckboard  over  the  weary  alkaline 
plains  of  Nevada,  up  over  the  Bridgeport  grade,  through 
the  snow-fields  of  the  High  Sierras.  We  had  camped 
out  night  after  night,  had  talked  and  sang  to  miners 
and  woodsmen,  to  pioneers  and  newcomers,  had  driven 
over  perilous  grades  and  roads  that  the  hand  of  man 
had  not  touched  since  the  preceding  fall  —  for  the  win- 
ter's snows  were  scarce  melted  over  many  miles  —  and 
we  had  had  tedious  and  rather  exhausting  days.  Day 
after  day  we  came  nearer  to  our  goal.     At  last  we  were 


220     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

told  that  we  should  surely  see  Yosemite  the  next  day. 
Higher  and  higher  our  weary  horses  walked.  The  trees 
were  growingly  delightful  to  the  eye,  but  they  were  not 
what  we  wanted.  At  length  we  were  actually  on  the 
Yosemite  grade,  and  a  sudden  turn  in  the  road  brought 
us  to  Inspiration  Point,  where  the  fullness  of  Yosemite's 
glories  strikes  the  beholder  in  one  swift  blow.  Our 
horses  stopped  of  their  own  volition,  held  doubtless  by 
the  subtle  force  of  the  majestic  scene  over  our  senses 
and  conveyed  to  them  by  that  mental  power  of  whose 
action  we  know  so  little. 

Inhaling  deep  breaths  we  looked  into  each  other's  eyes 
and  without  a  word  each  knew  that  the  other  was  sat- 
isfied. That  one  great,  long  view  gave  us  to  know  that 
we  were  satisfied.  What  a  wonderful  word  that  is  — 
satisfied.  How  much  it  expresses  of  content,  of  grati- 
fication, of  mental  rest.  Had  we  then  known  those  two 
wonderful  lines  of  Edwin  Markham  I  am  sure  our  exult- 
ant voices  would  have  shouted  or  sung  them  then  and 
there : 

"  I  ride  on  mountain  tops,  I  ride, 
I  have  found  my  life  and  am  satisfied." 

Since  then  I  have  gone  to  Yosemite  as  often  as  oppor- 
tunity has  allowed,  and  each  visit  brings  new  joys  and 
added  satisfaction. 

And  what  is  the  view  that  entrances  all  who  gaze  upon 
it?  The  eye  at  first  sight  is  uncertain  which  has  the 
greatest  power,  El  Capitan  or  the  exquisite  Bridal  Veil 
Falls.  The  former  is  on  the  left,  the  latter  on  the  right, 
and  one's  eyes  swing  back  and  forth,  resting  first  on 
one,  then  on  the  other,  appraising  their  respective  powers 
over  the  senses.  The  falls  are  so  elusive,  so  changing, 
so  steady  and  yet  so  ephemeral.     Every  gust  of  wind  is 


The  Yosemite  Valley 221 

reflected  or  expressed  in  that  swaying  column,  which, 
however,  is  etherealized  into  a  dehcate  spray,  with  lacy 
filmings  and  scallopings,  each  one  alive,  chasing  those 
ahead.  You  see  the  water  pour  over  the  tip  of  the  fall 
and  then  the  outer  particles,  caught  by  the  air  in  the 
rapid  descent,  break  away  from  the  main  body  and  are 
at  once  transformed  into  these  scallopings,  down-shoot- 
ing in  merry  chase,  one  after  another,  in  a  never-ending 
race.  Then,  suddenly,  a  gust  of  wind  strikes  the  fall 
and  transforms  the  delicate  forms  into  almost  impal- 
pable mist  and  spray.  It  is  this  filmy  veil,  swaying  in 
the  sunlight,  that  gained  the  fall  its  name  —  Bridal  Veil. 
The  main  column  of  water  also  sways  to  and  fro  in  the 
wind,  swinging  like  a  pendulum,  at  times,  but  with  a 
freakish  irregularity  that  holds  the  eye  expectantly,  won- 
deringly,  guessing  what  it  will  do  next. 

Upon  such  a  living,  moving,  active,  sprite-like,  irre- 
sponsible body  of  water,  with  such  a  filmy,  lace-like, 
misty  veil  of  tenderness  and  beauty  surrounding  it  one 
can  imagine  how  the  sunbeams  love  to  frolic.  They  play 
hide  and  seek  with  the  falling  water  and  spray,  darting 
jewel  and  diamond-like  effects  upon  and  over  them, 
which  dazzle  the  eye  of  the  beholder  and  yet  demand 
his  constant  homage.  An  elusive  rainbow  moves  to  and 
fro,  up  and  down,  as  the  water  and  spray  sway  back 
and  forth  and  the  wind  gusts  blov/  the  mist  as  they  will. 
While  the  eye  rests  upon  this  wonderful  fall  it  is  held 
completely  by  its  rare,  dainty,  exquisite  charm. 

At  last  it  breaks  away  and  daringly  roams  to  the  other 
side  of  the  vast  canyon  valley.  There  El  Capitan  seizes 
the  gaze  and  holds  it,  but  with  an  entirely  different  power 
from  that  exercised  by  Bridal  Veil.  Here  proud  strength, 
awesome  majesty,  supreme  serenity  reign.  Might,  pon- 
dcrousness,    power   are    allowed    their    full    measure    of 


222     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

exercise  over  the  human  senses  and  spirit.  Is  there  on 
all  the  earth  another  such  face  of  rock?  Three  thou- 
sand three  hundred  feet  of  sheer  precipitous  height,  with- 
out a  single  crack  or  break  to  mar  the  solidity  of  its  bold 
wall,  El  Capitan  is  the  most  kingly,  awe-inspiring  single 
mass  of  granite  known.  In  contrast,  the  eye  seeks  Bridal 
Veil  Falls  again.  Then  we  again  realize,  like  a  flash, 
the  reason  why  Yosemite  has  such  power  over  the  hearts 
and  minds  of  men.  It  is  so  diverse  —  the  tender,  airy, 
filmy  mystery  of  the  sun-dazzled  fall,  the  serene,  majestic, 
awe-inspiring  face  of  the  mural  monarch.  The  effect  is 
enhanced  by  the  trees  of  the  lower  slopes,  the  green  and^i 
flower-spangled  meadows,  through  which  the  calm, 
placid  Merced  —  the  river  of  mercy  —  flows  down  to 
take  cool  nourishment  to  the  parched  acres  of  the  valley 
below. 

Now  let  us  move  on.  As  we  do  so  the  three  massive 
peaks  which  form  the  background  of  Bridal  Veil  Falls 
appear  in  regular  order,  and  we  learn  that  they  are  called 
the  Three  Graces,  to  correspond  to  the  Three  Brothers 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley.  These  soon  come 
into  view  and  we  can  understand  the  impulse  that  led 
the  Indians  to  name  them  Pompompasus  —  the  leaping 
frogs  —  for  their  contours  singularly  suggest  the  shape 
of  the  squatting  frog  just  preparatory  to  taking  a  leap. 

Driving  along  through  a  fine  forest  that  has  been  care- 
fully preserved  in  the  valley,  over  a  well-watered  and 
well-kept  government  road,  the  discomforts  of  roughness 
and  dust  that  earlier  visitors  to  the  Valley  endured  are 
forgotten,  and,  indeed,  unknown.  The  river  accompan- 
ies us  along  our  way,  now  close  at  hand,  then  retiring 
to  the  leafy  shade  through  which  the  sun  occasionally 
gives  us  glimpses  of  its  dazzling  surface. 

In  rapid  succession  the  Cathedral  Rock  and   Spires, 


The  Yosemite  Valley 223 

Sentinel  Dome  and  Glacier  Point  come  into  view,  each 
with  its  own  distinct  individuality  and  attractiveness. 
All  these  peaks  rise  from  2,700  to  4,000  feet  above  the 
floor  of  the  Valley. 

Almost  under  the  shadow  of  Sentinel  Dome  is  Camp 
Ahwahnee,  the  site  of  the  first  house  ever  erected  in  the 
Valley  and  one  of  the  excellent  "  camps  "  provided  for 
visitors.  The  Yosemite  camps  all  consist  of  tents,  well 
provided  with  all  ordinary  necessities  for  comfort,  with 
a  common  dining  and  lounging  hall.  All  alike  are  shad- 
owed by  glorious  yellow  pines,  the  chief  differences 
being  in  one's  personal  preference  for  location  and  im- 
mediate environment.  Ahwahnee  has  an  excellent  repu- 
tation and  I  know  it  is  well  deserved.  The  table  is  the 
best  in  the  Valley,  and  the  service  is  as  good  as  the  table. 
Elach  tent  is  provided  with  electric  lights,  double-mat- 
tressed  beds,  hot  and  cold  water,  with  baths  handy  when- 
ever desired.  Every  night  a  glorious  camp-fire  of  great 
pine  and  fir  logs  is  built  outside,  and  visitors  sit  in  the 
warmth  of  the  blaze  and  sing  or  chat,  listen  to  an  im- 
promptu concert,  entertainment  of  varieties,  or  the  ad- 
dress of  some  willing  speaker. 

Then,  when  it  grows  chilly,  there  is  a  novelty  in  indoor 
fire-places  waiting  to  warm  you  in  the  pretty  sitting- 
room.  The  room  is  built  on  two  levels,  with  two  great 
stone  fire-places,  back  to  back.  In  theory,  the  upper  level 
is  the  Ladies'  Own,  but  in  comradeship  of  camp-life,  a 
sociable  commission  has  ruled  otherwise ;  and  the  men 
are  not  rebuked  when  they  invade  the  ladies'  sanctum, 
while  it  goes  without  saying  that  khaki  skirts,  and  even 
frills  and  flounces,  are  welcome  to  mingle  among  the 
masculine  boots  and  gaiters  around  the  lower  fire-place. 

Almost  directly  opposite  Camp  Ahwahnee  is  the  glori- 
ous Yosemite  Fall,  the  pride  of  the  centre  of  the  Valley, 


224     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

which  Nature  seems  to  have  so  much  loved  that  she  set 
it  apart  to  occupy  the  whole  of  one  side  of  the  Valley's 
centre.  Two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty  feet  from 
lip  to  bottom  pool,  divided  into  three  parts,  —  the  Upper 
Fall,  the  Cascades,  and  the  Lower  Fall,  —  it  is  a  mag- 
nificent spectacle,  and  its  music  is  no  less  wonderful  than 
its  appearance. 

Not  far  from  its  base  is  Camp  Lost  Arrow,  where  those 
who  enjoy  the  voice  of  the  waterfall  day  and  night  may 
live  within  its  rejoiceful  sound  and  feel  the  stimulus  of 
its  never  ceasing  song.  For  years,  before  such  fine  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  thousands  of  visitors  that  now 
flock  to  Yosemite,  this  used  to  be  my  favourite  camping- 
out  place.  In  my  blankets  stretched  out  upon  the  ground, 
Avith  the  blue  sky  for  my  canopy,  and  my  saddle  or  cam- 
era case  for  a  pillow,  I  have  spent  many  a  night  in  trem- 
ulous enjoyment,  —  thrilled  to  the  verge  of  tears  by  the 
unearthly  beauty,  mystery  and  sublimity  of  my  surround- 
ings, and  hearing  such  voices  as  never  before,  with  mes- 
sages of  which  I  could  catch  the  faintest  intimations  in 
the  singing  of  the  Great  Fall,  upon  which  I  never  tired 
of  gazing. 

On  the  river  is  the  Sentinel  Hotel,  the  old  hotel  that 
has  long  done  service,  but  that  it  is  hoped  will  soon  be 
replaced  by  a  modern,  commodious  and  adequate  struc- 
ture. For  what  the  hotel  was  capable  of,  visitors  have 
long  been  grateful,  and  under  the  present  management 
one  received  all  that  was  possible. 

Close  by  is  the  village  of  Yosemite,  where  stores,  post- 
office,  photographic  studios  and  the  superintendent's  of- 
fice are.  H.  C.  Best,  the  artist,  has  a  summer  studio 
here,  and  across  the  river,  past  the  Sentinel  Hotel,  Chris. 
Jorgensen  has  a  studio  and  house,  as  picturesque  in 
structure  as  is  their  location. 


The  Yo Semite  Valley  225 

From  a  point  close  by  one  may  gain  a  fine  view  of 
the  chief  glory  of  the  Valley,  the  Half  Dome,  the  loftiest, 
most  sublime  and  at  the  same  time  most  impressive  and 
beautiful  of  all  the  rocky  sentinels  that  guard  this  abode 
of  glory.  Rising  over  4,750  feet  above  the  floor,  where 
all  is  clothed  in  richest  verdure,  its  face  sculptured  by 
Time  and  Storm,  Glacier  and  Frost,  while  its  head  is 
smoothed  to  graceful  curves,  it  is  poised  in  calm,  serene 
majesty. 

Across  is  the  more  rounded  and  complete  North  Dome, 
near  which  is  Mt.  Watkins  and  Washington  Column, 
while  nearer  at  hand  are  the  Royal  Arches.  As  we  ride 
towards  them  the  varying  views  received  of  all  these 
distinctive  objects  serve  the  more  to  impress  their  unique 
power  upon  us.  The  Merced  River  still  flows  through 
the  valley,  until,  when  close  to  the  Domes,  the  main  can- 
yon divides  into  three  branches,  that  up  which  we  are 
going  to  see  Mirror  Lake  being  Tenaya,  the  one  to  the 
right  centre,  Merced,  and  to  the  extreme  right,  Illilou- 
ette. 

Mirror  Lake  is  really  formed  by  a  spreading  out  of 
Tenaya  Creek,  and  early  in  the  morning,  just  at  sunrise, 
before  the  slightest  zephyr  ripples  its  surface,  is  the  only 
time  to  see  it  at  its  best.  The  reflection  is  as  perfect 
as  the  objects  reflected,  and  the  wall  of  the  Half  Dome, 
where  trees  project,  is  pictured  to  perfection  in  the  clear, 
pure  mirror  face  of  the  water.  Now  watch  the  lancing 
of  the  darkness  by  the  crystal  spears  of  morning.  Then, 
suddenly,  there  comes  the  gleam  of  the  sun,  more  bril- 
liant than  any  diamond,  dazzling  the  eyes  through  the 
trees.  "  The  Grove  and  Mount  of  Transfiguration,"  one 
instinctively  calls  them,  and  he  moves  to  a  different  angle 
to  get  the  same  scene  again.  This,  one  may  do  half  a 
dozen  different  times,  and  it  is  only  when  the  sun  in- 


226     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

duces  the  winds  to  come  from  their  haunts  and  play  over 
the  face  of  the  water  and  destroy  its  brilliant  smooth- 
ness that  one  is  willing  to  tear  himself  away  for  fresh 
scenes. 

Turning  now  up  Merced  Canyon,  a  fine  glimpse  is 
had  of  Illilouette  Falls  on  the  right,  with  the  Happy  Isles 
and  the  Cascades  at  our  feet.  The  water  bubbles,  dashes, 
sparkles  and  sings  so  joyously  after  its  wonderful  leaps 
over  the  cliffs  that  make  Vernal  and  Nevada  Falls  that 
one  instinctively  knows  that  no  other  name  than  Happy 
Isles  would  have  been  appropriate  to  those  rocky  and 
tree-clad  boulders  and  land  patches  in  the  river.  But 
when  the  eye  first  glimpses  Vernal  Falls,  one  stops  for 
quite  a  while  to  feast  on  its  quiet,  solemn,  resistless 
majesty.  It  has  such  a  calm  and  serene  look,  so  different 
from  Bridal  Fall,  Yosemite  and  Illilouette.  Its  broad 
front,  smooth  and  even,  its  outer  waters  lashed  into 
foam,  comes  over  in  such  a  calm,  dignified,  stately  fash- 
ion that  it  well  represents  an  aged  man's  cultured  brow, 
on  which  his  white  hair  adds  beauty  as  well  as  serene 
dignity. 

A  mile  beyond  is  Nevada  Fall,  between  six  hundred 
and  seven  hundred  feet  high,  whose  waters  are  so  dashed 
and  churned  and  tossed  about  ere  they  are  hurled  over 
the  lip  that  they  are  of  a  snowy  whiteness.  They  come 
over  in  an  entirely  different  fashion  from  those  of  Ver- 
nal. They  seem  hurried,  almost  apologetic,  fluffy,  fussy, 
nervous  and  agitated,  so  different,  indeed,  that  it  is  hard 
to  conceive  the  same  water  can  so  entirely  change  its 
character  in  the  short  mile  before  it  appears  as  Vernal 
Fall. 

By  all  means  take  the  trail  to  these  two  falls,  circle 
around  the  Cap  of  Liberty  and  across  Illilouette  Basin, 
up  to  Glacier   Point,   from   which  one  of  the   sublime 


The  Yosemite  Valley  227 

views  of  the  Canyon  below,  the  Falls  beyond  and  across, 
and  the  supernal  heights  of  the  High  Sierras  on  the 
eastern  horizon,  may  be  had. 

On  returning  be  sure  to  visit  Curry's  Camp,  the  most 
popular  and  extensively  patronized  camp  of  the  Valley. 
Mr.  Curry  was  the  first  to  render  camp  life,  with  its 
open-air  camp-fire  evenings,  and  the  general  dining- 
room,  a  favourite  method  of  enjoying  Yosemite.  Since 
he  began  his  camp  has  rapidly  increased  until  now  he  can 
accommodate  with  comfort  over  five  hundred  guests. 
In  the  last  year  he  has  put  in  an  enlarged  open-air 
(heated)  swimming-tank,  a  fine  large  dance  and  con- 
cert pavilion,  steam  laundry  and  ice  and  refrigeration 
plant. 

Situated  directly  under  Glacier  Point,  the  wall  of 
which  is  a  sheer  precipice,  3,250  feet  in  height,  it  nat- 
urally suggested  to  an  ingenious  mind  like  that  of  Mr. 
Curry  a  beautiful  and  startling  efifect  which  is  carried 
out  every  night.  The  watchword  of  Camp  Curry  is 
the  couplet : 

"  Where  the  fire  falls. 
And  the  Stentor  calls." 

When  supper  is  over,  and  the  guests  are  comfortably 
disposed  around  the  camp-fire,  Mr.  Curry  makes  his 
usual  evening  speech,  then,  with  a  voice  of  resounding 
power,  gives  the  Stentor's  call  to  the  watchman  on  Gla- 
cier Point  above.  There  a  great  bonfire  has  been  lighted, 
and  now,  when  its  pile  of  wood  is  reduced  to  ashes,  they 
are  bodily  thrown  over  the  precipice,  to  fall  in  a  mar- 
vellous, mysterious  and  dazzling  cataract  of  fire  to  the 
valley  beneath. 

One  must  not  hurry  at  Yosemite.  Go  to  Mr.  Coff- 
man,  who  for  many  years  has  had  charge  of  the  livery 


228     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

stables,  and  secure  from  him  a  saddle-animal.  Then 
day  after  day  visit  the  various  outlook  points  on  the 
rim.  Go  higher  up  Tenaya  Canyon  to  the  beautiful 
Tenaya  Fall,  the  Dome  Cascades,  a  thousand  feet  high, 
and  the  Tenaya  Cascades,  seven  hundred  feet  in  sheer 
vertical  descent.  Go  up  to  the  Little  Yosemite,  and  to 
Cloud's  Rest,  and  if  you  like  a  real  genuine  camping-out 
trip,  Mr.  Cofifman  will  fully  equip  you  and  send  you 
forth  on  an  excursion  to  the  heavenly  places  of  the  High 
Sierras,  where  glacial  fountains  sing  their  songs  of  crea- 
tive joy  and  the  grizzly  and  condor  used  to  reign  su- 
preme, —  the  one  in  the  peaks,  and  the  other  in  the  sky. 

But  no  one  should  visit  Yosemite  without  going  to 
Foresta  and  the  Hetch-Hetchy  Valley.  Foresta  is  on 
the  Coulterville  automobile  road  into  the  Valley,  and  is 
a  unique  place.  When  the  Yosemite  National  Park  was 
created,  the  enabling  act  precluded  the  possibility  of  any 
person  owning  a  private  home  in  or  near  the  Valley, 
unless  it  was  secured  from  some  one  who  already  owned 
patented  land  within  the  boundaries  of  the  reserve.  Two 
years  ago  a  group  of  California's  most  representative 
men  and  women  in  the  educational  and  literary  world 
thought  it  would  be  an  excellent  plan,  were  it  possible, 
to  establish  a  summer  camp  in  or  near  the  Yosemite, 
where  lots  could  be  purchased  and  homes  erected  for  all 
time,  undisturbed  by  Government  or  Forest  Reserve 
plans.  After  considerable  search  this  place  was  found 
close  to  the  rim  of  Yosemite,  two  miles  by  trail,  and  six 
by  automobile  road  from  El  Portal,  chosen  as  a  home 
by  a  lover  of  beautiful  trees  and  one  wdio  desired  close 
proximity  to  Yosemite,  with  all  the  advantages  of  the 
privacy  of  private  ownership. 

Arrangements  were  at  once  perfected  for  the  carrying 
out  of  the  home  plan,  and  such  men  and  women  as  Pres- 


The  Yosemite  Valley  229 

ident  Benj.  Ide  Wheeler,  of  the  State  University,  Joaquin 
Miller,  John  Muir,  Professors  Harley  Wiley  and  E.  J. 
Wickson,  the  head  of  the  State  Experimental  Stations, 
Henry  Morse  Stephens,  Jaffa,  A.  C.  Jones,  A.  Lange, 
W.  D.  Armes,  artists  as  Xavier  Martinez,  literary  per- 
sonages as  Jack  London,  Herman  Whitaker,  Ninetta 
Eames  Payne  and  Ida  Mansfield  Wilson,  secured  lots  and 
entered  into  the  plan  for  a  home  and  a  great  summer 
assembly  at  Foresta  —  which  was  the  name  chosen  for 
the  new  camp. 

Cottages  were  erected,  and  a  store,  hotel,  assembly 
hall,  etc.,  established.  Good  roads  and  trails  were  built, 
and  a  water  system  installed.  Here  not  only  the  owners 
of  lots  and  homes  may  go,  but  all  interested  in  the  Yo- 
semite and  what  it  affords,  with  the  advantage  of  what 
Foresta  has  in  addition,  are  invited  to  become  its  guests. 
Here,  wearing  one's  oldest  clothes,  one  may  find  perfect 
relaxation,  rest,  and  recuperation.  The  hunter,  sports- 
man and  fisherman  are  as  welcomed  by  Nature  as  is  the 
geologist,  botanist  and  student  of  the  trees.  One  may 
boat,  canoe,  swim  or  fish,  and  all  the  innumerable  trails 
of  the  Yosemite  call  for  walking  and  riding  on  mule, 
horse  or  burro.  The  Big  Trees  are  close  by,  and  if  one 
wishes  a  touch  now  and  again  of  the  busy  travelling 
world.  El  Portal  is  less  than  half  an  hour's  walk  away. 

But  Foresta's  especial  claim  upon  the  attention  of  the 
refined  and  intellectual,  the  quiet,  the  studious  and  the 
cultured  is  its  unique  plan  for  a  summer  assembly.  All 
the  university,  literary,  artistic  and  social  leaders  who 
associated  themselves  with  Foresta  did  so  with  the  ex- 
press agreement  that  they  would  give  of  the  best  of 
themselves  to  make  the  literary  and  artistic  features  of 
Foresta  what  the  unequalled  environment  suggested  and 
demanded.     Who  can  do  less  than  give  of  his  best  in 


230     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

such  glorious  preserves?  Inspiration  flows  out  from 
these  majestic  trees,  massive  rocks,  towering  spires,  sing- 
ing cataracts,  jocund  cascades,  and  the  flowers  and  birds 
give  example  in  the  richness  and  perfection  of  their 
colouring  and  the  delicate  sweetness  of  their  melodies 
as  to  what  men  should  give  to  their  fellows.  So  wit 
and  wisdom,  philosophy  and  counsel,  humour  and  advice, 
together  with  melody  and  harmony  are  to  flow  forth 
unrestrained  and  unconfined.  But  the  chief  charm  of 
these  is  that  they  are  to  be  more  informal  than  formal. 
Spontaneity  and  natural  expression  are  expected  rather 
than  prepared  formal  speech.  In  the  words  of  the  For- 
esta  announcement : 

"  Thoughts  shall  be  expressed  by  those  who  have  them, 
and  men  and  women  shall  hear  without  compulsion. 
Scientists,  philosophers,  poets,  and  those  who  have  con- 
victions yet  untried  —  men  and  women  to  whom  the 
world  is  listening  —  shall  be  invited  here  for  mutual 
good.  The  speaker  may  sit  upon  a  stump  or  stand  be- 
neath a  tree  and  speak  the  things  that  are  in  his  heart; 
the  hearer  may  rest  upon  the  ground,  sit  upon  a  log, 
or  walk  away  into  the  forest." 

My  own  interest  in  Foresta  is  best  demonstrated  by 
the  fact  that  I  have  purchased  several  lots  there,  and 
am  anticipating  the  pleasure  of  making  for  myself,  some 
day  (or  at  least  helping  to  do  so),  a  summer  camp  where 
I  and  mine  may  enjoy  this  place  of  blissful  surroundings. 

Yet  ere  I  leave  Yosemite  I  would  take  my  readers  to 
two  spots  I  am  never  tired  of,  and  never  expect  to  be. 
These  are  Wawona  and  the  Mariposa  Grove  of  Big 
Trees.  The  latter  is  described  in  the  Forest  chapter, 
and  Wawona  was  one  of  my  first  of  California  "  loves." 
Its  centre  is  the  Wawona  Hotel,  conducted  for  years  by 
the  noted  Washburn  Brothers,  all  of  them  with  wonder- 


The  Yosemite  Valley  231 

ful  records  as  drivers  of  the  most  distinguished  of  men 
and  parties  to  the  Yosemite  for  the  past  forty  years.  It 
is  a  liberal  education  to  be  admitted  to  conversation 
vv'ith  one  of  them  if  he  can  be  induced  to  tell  of  his  ex- 
periences and  associations.  The  Wawona  Hotel  used 
to  be  the  home  of  Thomas  Hill,  whose  canvases  of  Yo- 
semite will  ever  stand  as  imperishable  mementoes  of  his 
artistic  genius.  Surrounded  on  every  hand  by  the  incom- 
parable and  varied  scenery  of  the  High  Sierras,  located 
in  its  own  park  of  beautiful  trees,  with  fertile  meadows 
through  which  a  clear  mountain  stream  constantly  flows, 
one  finds  this  a  rare  place  for  rest,  or  as  a  stopping-place 
from  which  to  start  on  a  score  or  more  of  delightful  trips. 

Chief  among  these  are  the  Mariposa  Grove  of  Big 
Trees  and  Glacier  Point,  but  one  also  finds  delight  in 
Wawona  Point,  Chilnualna  Falls,  the  Glacial  Lakes, 
Signal  Peak,  and  the  many  groves  of  Sierran  trees  that 
are  found  in  exquisite  beauty  on  every  hand. 

Many  people  have  found  that  an  excellent  way  to 
enjoy  Yosemite  is  to  go  in  by  the  railway  to  El  Portal, 
and  auto-stage  to  the  camp  of  their  choice,  then,  after 
their  stay  is  over,  leave  by  stage,  which  runs  daily  to 
Wawona  and  the  Big  Trees,  and  thence,  by  powerful 
automobiles,  to  Madera,  over  the  old  stage-road.  Thus 
a  complete  horseshoe  is  made,  and  there  is  no  travelling 
twice  over  the  same  ground. 

Automobiles  are  now  allowed  to  enter  the  Yosemite 
National  Park.  Only  one  road  is  open,  however,  viz., 
by  way  of  Coulterville,  and  there  are  many  restrictions 
and  conditions  rendered  imperative  for  safety  over  the 
precipitous  roads  where  horses  also  are  used. 

Hence  one  needs  to  inform  himself  before  he  takes 
the  trip,  and  should  he  desire  to  go  easily  he  can  ship 
his  auto  by  rail  to  El  Portal. 


232     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

The  Yosemite  Valley  Railway  has  made  the  trip  an 
easy  one,  when  compared  with  the  old  staging  days. 
Both  the  Santa  Fe  and  Southern  Pacific  connect  directly 
with  it  at  Merced,  and  after  crossing  the  plain  it  enters 
the  wondrously  beautiful  Merced  Canyon,  which  it  fol- 
lows all  the  way  to  El  Portal,  the  terminus  just  outside 
the  Park  limits. 

Here  a  wonderfully  attractive  and  romantic  hotel  has 
been  constructed  on  a  wooded  plateau  on  the  canyon 
side,  surrounded  by  wide  verandas  and  enclosing  a 
flower-enriched  patio.  The  hotel  being  owned  by  the 
railway,  its  manager,  Mr.  F.  A.  Kline,  is  instructed  to 
see  that  every  guest  goes  away  happy  and  satisfied. 
There  are  many  picturesque  spots  round  and  about  El 
Portal,  —  the  incline  to  the  sawmill,  the  great  pine 
forests,  Foresta,  the  Hetch-Hetchy,  the  Tuolumne  and 
Merced  Groves  of  Big  Trees,  fishing  and  hunting  galore 
(for  this  region  is  outside  of  the  Park  and  therefore 
unhampered  by  its  restrictions),  so  that  it  makes  a  de- 
lightful stopping-place  either  going  in  or  returning  from 
Yosemite. 

The  ride  from  El  Portal  into  the  Valley  is  now  made 
by  automobile  stages  instead  of  the  old  passenger  coaches, 
and  thus,  each  year  sees  the  trip  made  easier  and  the 
disagreeable  features  eliminated. 

Elsewhere  I  have  referred  to  the  delights  of  climbing 
the  High  Sierras  in  winter.  The  Yosemite  Valley  is 
the  best  place  in  the  world  from  which  to  gain  such  an 
experience.  The  railway,  stages  and  hotels  are  open  all, 
or  most,  of  the  year,  and  one  is  taken  into  the  very  heart 
of  the  mountains  without  efTort.  How  wonderfully 
things  have  changed  in  a  few  years.  When  Miss  Gor- 
don-Cummings  wrote  in  1878  of  the  winter  in  the  Val- 
ley she  said :    "  In  some  of  the  canyons  the  snow  accu- 


The  Yosemite  Valley  233 

mulates  to  the  depth  of  a  hundred  feet,  while  fifteen  to 
twenty  feet  sometimes  fall  steadily  all  over  the  moun- 
tains, at  the  rate  of  four  or  five  feet  in  a  day.  So  the 
few  regular  inhabitants  of  the  Valley  make  up  their 
minds  to  total  seclusion  during  this  period,  and  provision 
themselves  accordingly,  knowing  that  till  the  warm 
breath  of  spring  shall  melt  their  prison  walls,  not  even 
a  chance  horseman  or  cat-like  Indian  will  invade  their 
solitude.  The  wailing  of  the  wild  winds  and  the  roar  of 
the  rushing  rivers  are  the  only  murmurs  that  can  reach 
them  from  beyond  their  lonely  valley." 

Now,  however,  the  shriek  of  the  locomotive  whistle 
penetrates  as  far  as  Mirror  Lake,  and  the  crack  of  the 
driver's  whip  echoes  from  El  Capitan  to  Cathedral 
Rocks,  and  from  Sentinel  Dome  to  the  Three  Graces, 
through  the  winter  as  well  as  the  summer.  Hundreds 
enjoy  the  sports  of  winter  in  sight  of  the  great  ice  dome 
thrown  up  by  Yosemite  Fall,  —  tobogganing,  sleigh- 
riding,  storming  a  snow-fort,  snowballing,  skiing  or 
snow-shoeing,  skating,  building  snow  men,  sliding,  — 
while  six  hundred  miles  away  in  the  same  State  other 
hundreds  are  cheering  and  applauding  the  flower-dec- 
orated floats,  automobiles  and  carriages  of  the  Pasadena 
Tournament  of  Roses. 

A  few  days'  experience  makes  one  able  to  travel  fairly 
well  on  snow-shoes,  and  then  the  mountain  climbing  may 
begin.  It  is  well  to  take  a  guide  along,  and  not  to  go 
too  far  to  start  with.  As  soon  as  one's  wings  are  strong 
further  flights  will  suggest  themselves. 

One  of  the  greatest  joys  that  can  come  into  a  human 
being's  heart  is  one  of  the  results  of  these  winter  trips, 
wisely  and  cautiously  taken.  That  is,  that  Nature  is 
a  friend;  she  is  ever  kindly  disposed  to  mankind;  her 
heart-beats  are  tender  and  gentle,  and  even  in  winter 


234     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

her  breast  is  a  good  place  to  rest  upon,  to  gain  new 
strength,  vigour,  and  courage  for  the  battle  of  life. 
Again  and  again  Muir  practically  demonstrates  this  as 
he  tells,  in  his  Mountains  of  California,  of  his  sleeping- 
out  experiences,  and  Snow-Shoe  Thompson,  surrounded 
by  the  High  Sierran  landscape,  swathed  in  deepest  snow, 
"  stretched  upon  his  bed  of  boughs,  with  his  feet  to  the 
fire,  and  his  head  resting  upon  one  of  Uncle  Sam's  mail 
bags,  slept  as  soundly  as  if  occupying  the  best  bed  ever 
made;  though,  perhaps,  beneath  his  couch,  there  was  a 
depth  of  from  ten  to  thirty  feet  of  snow." 


CHAPTER    XV 

THE    LAKE    TAHOE    REGION 

The  name  of  John  C.  Fremont,  the  Pathfinder,  ex- 
plorer of  California  and  Oregon  in  the  early  'forties, 
namer  of  the  Golden  Gate,  Republican  candidate  for 
president,  general  in  the  Civil  War,  scientist,  scholar, 
warrior,  statesman,  diplomat,  and  author,  is  one  to  con- 
jure with  in  many  fields.  But  while  Fremont's  cosmo- 
politan achievements  will  ever  keep  his  memory  green, 
I  doubt  whether  any  one  thing  he  ever  accomplished  will 
ultimately  bring  him  greater  renown  and  gratitude  than 
his  discovery  of  Lake  Tahoe,  —  the  Big  Water,  the  High 
Water  of  the  Washoe  Indians.  It  was  on  February  14th, 
1844,  that  the  great  explorer,  on  his  trip  to  California 
from  the  Dalles  of  the  Columbia,  in  Oregon,  having 
passed  up  Carson  Canyon,  from  the  valley  in  which 
Carson  City  now  stands,  climbed  a  rounded  peak  near 
to  Freel's  Peak,  at  the  southeastern  end  of  the  lake,  and 
thus  discovered  this  remarkable  body  of  water.  He  says 
in  his  journal:  "February  14.  Accompanied  by  Mr. 
Preuss,  I  ascended  to-day  the  highest  peak  to  the  right, 
from  which  we  had  a  beautiful  view  of  a  mountain  lake 
at  our  feet,  about  fifteen  miles  in  length,  and  so  entirely 
surrounded  by  mountains  that  we  could  not  discover  an 
outlet.  We  had  taken  with  us  a  glass;  but,  though  we 
enjoyed  an  extended  view,  the  valley  was  half  hidden 
in  mist." 

235 


236     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

For  many  years  the  strangest  stories  were  told  of 
Lake  Tahoe,  —  that  it  had  no  feeding  streams,  as  well 
as  that  it  had  no  outlet, — but  in  the  fifties  and  sixties 
it  was  pretty  thoroughly  explored,  its  origin  scientific- 
ally studied,  and  its  charms  so  expatiated  upon  that  ever 
since  it  has  held  an  established  place  in  the  high  esteem 
of  men. 

In  the  sixties  Mark  Twain,  the  inimitable,  the  world- 
famed,  then  unknown  and  ahnost  poverty-stricken,  came 
with  a  friend  from  Carson  City  and  camped  for  awhile 
on  its  shores.  His  chief  stopping-place  was  not  far  from 
what  is  now  known  as  Carnelian  Bay.  Later,  in  half 
jest,  half  earnest,  he  wrote  of  his  experiences.  Poking 
fun  at  himself  and  his  camp-mate,  he  made  the  world 
laugh,  yet  he  wrought  into  his  fun  some  pictures  of 
sterling  worth  that  show  how  profound  an  impression 
this  glorious  Lake  made  upon  his  receptive  mind  and 
soul. 

"  At  last  the  Lake  burst  upon  us,  —  a  noble  sheet  of 
blue  water  lifted  six  thousand  three  hundred  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  sea,  and  walled  in  by  a  rim  of  snow-clad 
mountain  peaks  that  towered  aloft  full  three  thousand 
feet  higher  still !  It  was  a  vast  oval,  and  one  would  have 
to  use  up  eighty  or  a  hundred  good  miles  in  travelling 
around  it.  As  it  lay  there  with  the  shadows  of  the  moun- 
tains brilliantly  photographed  upon  its  still  surface,  I 
thought  it  must  surely  be  the  fairest  picture  the  whole 
earth  affords.  .  .   . 

"  We  did  not  see  a  human  being  but  ourselves  during 
the  two  or  three  weeks  we  were  there,  or  hear  any  sounds 
but  those  that  were  made  by  the  wind  and  the  waves, 
the  sighing  of  the  pines,  and  now  and  then  the  far-off 
thunder  of  an  avalanche.  The  forest  about  us  was  dense 
and  cool,  the  sky  above  us  was  cloudless  and  brilliant 


The  Lake  Tahoe  Region  237 

with  sunshine,  the  broad  lake  before  us  was  glassy  and 
clear,  or  rippled  and  breezy,  or  black  and  storm-tossed, 
according  to  Nature's  mood;  and  its  circling  border  of 
mountain  domes,  clothed  with  forests,  scarred  with  land- 
slides, cloven  by  canyons  and  valleys,  and  helmeted  with 
glittering  snow,  fitly  framed  and  finished  the  noble  pic- 
ture. The  view  was  always  fascinating,  bewitching,  en- 
trancing. The  eye  was  never  tired  of  gazing,  night  or 
day,  in  calm  or  storm ;  it  suffered  but  one  grief,  and  that 
was  that  it  could  not  look  always,  but  must  close  some- 
times in  sleep.   .  .  . 

"  So  singularly  clear  was  the  water  that,  where  it 
was  only  twenty  or  thirty  feet  deep,  the  bottom  was  so 
perfectly  distinct  that  the  boat  seemed  floating  in  the 
air !  Yes,  where  it  was  even  eighty  feet  deep.  Every 
little  pebble  was  distinct,  every  speckled  trout,  every 
hand's-breadth  of  sand.  Often,  as  we  lay  on  our  faces, 
a  granite  boulder,  as  large  as  a  village  church,  would 
start  out  of  the  bottom  apparently,  and  seem  climbing 
up  rapidly  to  the  surface,  till  presently  it  threatened  to 
touch  our  faces,  and  we  could  not  resist  the  impulse  to 
seize  an  oar  and  avert  the  danger.  But  the  boat  would 
float  on,  and  the  boulder  descend  again,  and  then  we 
could  see  that  when  we  had  been  exactly  above  it,  it  must 
still  have  been  twenty  or  thirty  feet  below  the  surface. 
Down  through  the  transparency  of  these  great  depths, 
the  water  was  not  merely  transparent,  but  dazzlingly, 
brilliantly  so.  All  objects  seen  through  It  had  a  bright, 
strong  vividness,  not  only  of  outline,  but  of  every  minute 
detail,  which  they  would  not  have  had  when  seen  simply 
through  the  same  depth  of  atmosphere.  So  empty  and 
airy  did  all  spaces  seem  below  us,  and  so  strong  was  the 
sense  of  floating  high  aloft  in  mid-nothingness,  that  we 
called  these  boat-excursions  '  balloon-voyages.'  " 


238     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

In  speaking  of  camping  and  sleeping  out  at  night  on 
the  lake  shore,  he  says :  '*  Three  months  of  this  on  Lake 
Tahoe  would  restore  an  Egyptian  mummy  to  his  pristine 
vigour,  and  give  him  an  appetite  like  an  alligator.  I  do 
not  mean  the  oldest  and  driest  mummies,  of  course,  but 
the  fresher  ones.  The  air  up  there  in  the  clouds  is  very 
pure  and  fine,  bracing  and  delicious.  And  why  shouldn't 
it  be?  —  it  is  the  same  the  angels  breathe.  I  think  that 
hardly  any  amount  of  fatigue  can  be  gathered  together 
that  a  man  cannot  sleep  off  in  one  night  on  the  sand  by 
its  side.  Not  under  a  roof,  but  under  the  sky ;  it  seldom 
rains  there  in  the  summer  time.  I  know  a  man  who 
went  there  to  die.  But  he  made  a  failure  of  it.  He 
was  a  skeleton  when  he  came,  and  could  barely  stand. 
He  had  no  appetite,  and  did  nothing  but  read  tracts 
and  reflect  on  the  future.  Three  months  later  he  was 
sleeping  out  of  doors  regularly,  eating  all  he  could  hold, 
three  times  a  day,  and  chasing  game  over  mountains 
three  thousand  feet  high  for  recreation.  And  he  was 
a  skeleton  no  longer,  but  weighed  part  of  a  ton.  This 
is  no  fancy  sketch,  but  the  truth.  I  confidently  com- 
m.end  his  experience  to  other  skeletons." 

Then  came  Thomas  Starr  King,  silver-tongued, 
golden-hearted,  diamond-souled,  dedicated  to  God  and 
men.  He  first  saw  the  Lake  when  visiting  the  mining- 
camps  in  the  interests  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War.  He  and  the  heroic  pioneer,  John 
Bidwell,  rode  up  and  down,  back  and  forth  across  the 
land,  bidding  men  and  women  do  their  duty  by  the  brave 
soldiers  who  fought  the  battles  for  the  Union  and  free- 
dom in  the  fields  of  the  South.  His  heart  stirred  with 
fervid  patriotism,  he  was  the  better  qualified  and  made 
receptive  to  see  and  enjoy  to  the  full  the  glory  of  this 
expansive  mountain  jewel  of  water.     Returning  to  his 


The  Lake  Tahoe  Region  239 

people  in  San  Francisco  he  gave  them  a  vivid  picture  of 
its  glories  and  enchantments,  part  of  which  is  as  fallows : 
"  Everything  is  charming  in  the  surroundings  of  this 
mountain  lake ;  but  as  soon  as  one  walks  to  the  beach 
of  it,  and  surveys  its  expanse,  it  is  the  colour,  or  rather 
the  colours,  spread  out  before  the  eye,  which  hold  it 
with  the  greatest  fascination.  I  was  able  to  stay  eight 
days  in  all,  amidst  that  calm  and  cheer,  yet  the  hues  of 
the  water  seemed  to  become  more  surprising  with  each 
hour.  The  Lake,  according  to  recent  measurement,  is 
about  twenty-one  miles  in  length,  by  twelve  or  thirteen 
in  breadth.  There  is  no  island  visible  to  break  its  sweep, 
which  seems  to  be  much  larger  than  the  figures  indicate. 
And  the  whole  of  the  vast  surface,  the  boundaries  of 
which  are  taken  in  easily  at  once  by  the  range  of  the  eye, 
is  a  mass  of  pure  splendour.  When  the  day  is  calm, 
there  is  a  ring  of  the  Lake,  extending  more  than  a  mile 
from  shore,  which  is  brilliantly  green.  Within  this  ring 
the  vast  centre  of  the  expanse  is  of  a  deep  yet  soft  and 
singularly  tinted  blue.  Hues  cannot  be  more  sharply 
contrasted  than  are  these  permanent  colours.  They  do 
not  shade  into  each  other;  they  lie  as  clearly  defined  as 
the  courses  of  glowing  gems  in  the  Wall  of  the  New 
Jerusalem.  It  is  precisely  as  if  we  were  looking  on  an 
immense  floor  of  lapis  lazuli  set  within  a  ring  of  flaming 
emerald. 

"  The  cause  of  this  contrast  is  the  sudden  change  in 
the  depth  of  the  water  at  a  certain  distance  from  shore. 
For  a  mile  or  so  the  basin  shelves  gradually,  and  then 
suddenly  plunges  off  into  unknown  depths.  The  centre 
of  the  Lake  must  be  a  tremendous  pit.  A  very  short  dis- 
tance from  where  the  water  is  green,  and  so  transparent 
that  the  clean  stones  can  be  seen  on  the  bottom  a  hundred 
feet  below,  the  blue  water  has  been  found  to  be  fourteen 


240     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

hundred  feet  deep ;  and  in  other  portions  soundings  can- 
not be  obtained  with  a  greater  extent  of  line. 

"  What  a  savage  chasm  the  lake-bed  must  be !  Empty 
the  water  from  it  and  it  is  pure  and  unrelieved  desola- 
tion. And  the  sovereign  loveliness  of  the  water  that 
fills  it  is  its  colour.  The  very  savageness  of  the  rent  and 
fissure  is  made  the  condition  of  the  purest  charm.  The 
Lake  does  not  feed  a  permanent  river.  We  cannot  trace 
any  issue  of  it  to  the  ocean.  It  is  not,  that  we  know, 
a  well-spring  to  supply  any  large  district  with  water  for 
ordinary  use.  It  seems  to  exist  for  beauty.  And  its  pe- 
culiar beauty  has  its  root  in  the  peculiar  harshness  and 
wildness  of  the  deeps  it  hides." 

Can  any  one  doubt  the  supernal  beauty  of  the  scene 
that  could  inspire  two  such  diverse  geniuses  as  Mark 
Twain  and  Thomas  Starr  King  to  such  exquisite  and 
incomparable  eloquence?  Without  exception  every  one 
bows  to  that  marvellous  exhibition  of  colour.  Within 
me  it  arouses  emotions  akin  to  those  stirred  by  wonder- 
ful music.  The  colours  are  not  so  glowing  as  those  of 
sunrises  and  sunsets,  but  they  are  equally  sublime,  awe- 
inspiring  and  enchanting.  And  I  do  not  use  these  words 
idly.  The  vast  area  makes  the  effect  sublime  and  awe- 
inspiring,  and  the  surprise,  the  novelty,  the  rareness  is 
enchanting. 

Up  to  the  time  that  Fremont  discovered  Lake  Tahoe 
its  shores  had  seen  no  other  human  beings  than  the 
I  Washoe  and  Paiute  Indians  who  lived  luxuriously  upon 
its  delicately  flavoured  trout,  and  nourished  themselves 
with  the  equally  delicious  pinyon  nuts  which  they  gath- 
ered in  vast  quantities  from  the  near-by  mountain  slopes. 

A  century  from  the  date  of  its  discovery  will  see  a 
change  more  wonderful  and  marvellous  than  that  which 
dazzled  the  eyes  of  Rip  Van  Winkle  for,  by  1944,  there 


The  Lake  Tahoe  Region 241 

will  be  scarcely  an  acre  bordering  the  seventy  or  eighty 
miles  circumference  of  the  Lake  that  will  not  have  its 
private  villa,  cottage,  or  humbler  residence  of  the  nature- 
iover.  Already  for  sixty  years  steamers,  launches,  sail- 
boats and  skiffs  of  every  kind  have  crisscrossed  its  sur- 
face. To-day  two  or  three  of  the  finest  private  yachts 
in  the  United  States  rest  upon  its  bosom  and,  winter 
and  summer,  a  steamer  makes  its  daily  trips  around  the 
Lake. 

Climatically,  Lake  Tahoe  is  a  place  of  wonderful  an- 
titheses. In  summer,  Mark  Twain's  description  of  the 
air  and  the  general  atmospheric  conditions  is  about  as 
near  to  accuracy  as  the  ordinary  human  being  can  come. 
It  is  ineffable,  delightful,  restful,  soothing,  stimulating, 
health-giving,  and  all  the  other  things  that  a  delicious 
mountain,  lake  and  forest  climate  ought  to  be. 

Starr  King  refers  to  the  clarity  and  purity  of  the 
water.  Scientific  investigation  reveals  that  it  is  as  pure 
as  water  can  be  found,  and  its  clearness  is  to-day  the 
marvel  of  all  visitors.  Mark  Twain's  comment  upon 
this  fact  is  absolute  truth. 

While  the  Lake  is  so  charming  in  summer,  its  winter 
charms  and  delights  are  unknown.  Practically  every- 
body flees  the  country  except  the  few  hardy  mountain- 
eers who  stay  to  take  care  of  property  and  protect  it 
from  the  fierce  onslaughts  of  mountain  winds  and  snow- 
storms. Snow  falls  to  the  depth  of  eight,  ten,  twenty 
and  more  feet,  and  only  those  who  are  familiar  with 
the  use  of  snow-shoes  can  remain.  Every  tree  bears  its 
burden  of  glistening  snow  and  the  white  of  God's  feath- 
ers from  the  clouds  covers  everything  with  a  robe  of 
richest  purity  and  angelic  glory,  or  with  a  pall  of  cold, 
dreary  desolateness,  according  as  the  eye  of  the  beholder 
is  attuned  to  the  wintry  aspect  of  the  landscape. 


242     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Yet  the  time  will  come,  and  speedily  I  believe,  when 
many  thousands  of  hardy  climbers  and  athletic  moun- 
tain lovers  will  take  advantage  of  the  incomparable  ad- 
vantages this  region  offers  for  winter  sports.  For  snow- 
shoeing  it  is  unsurpassed,  and  those  who  know  its  win- 
ter dress  contend  there  is  no  comparison  between  its 
charms  and  rugged  allurements  at  that  time  and  what 
it  offers  in  the  summer. 

One  of  the  remarkable  winter  facts  of  Tahoe  is  that, 
while  the  thermometer  registers  at  times  below  zero, 
and  fierce  freezing  winds  blow  over  the  surface  of  the 
Lake,  it  never  freezes  over,  although  all  the  smaller  lakes 
of  the  region,  almost  without  exception,  become  coated 
with  ice  to  the  depth  of  many  feet. 

Lake  Tahoe  is  one  of  the  largest  lakes  of  the  world 
at  its  altitude.  At  average  height  the  surface  of  its 
waters  is  about  6,200  feet  above  sea  level,  and  it  is  23 
miles  long  by  13  miles  wide.  Mountains  surround  it 
on  every  side,  those  to  the  west  being  the  last  great  crest 
of  the  gigantic  rock  waves  that  make  the  stately  Sierras. 
One  would  need  the  fingers  of  both  hands  twice  over  to 
enumerate  the  peaks  that  are  in  sight  from  the  bosom 
of  the  Lake  that  are  over  nine  thousand  feet  high,  and 
fully  half  of  these  are  over  the  ten  thousand  foot  level. 

While  a  large  portion  of  the  forest  area  has  been 
logged,  there  is  sufficient  of  the  old  growth  and  an  abun- 
dance of  the  new  to  make  a  thousand  ordinary  forests, 
hence  it  is  a  fascinating  place  for  tree-study.  Here  at 
the  different  levels,  shading  more  or  less  into  one  an- 
other, are  groups  of  white  and  sugar  pine,  white  and 
red  fir,  rugged  and  gnarled  junipers,  a  few  spruce,  clus- 
ter after  cluster  of  the  exquisitely  tinted  and  dainty- 
leafed  silver  fir,  and  millions  of  attractive  hemlock,  tam- 
arack, and  mountain  pine. 


The  Lake  Tahoe  Region  243 

And  as  for  lakes,  if  one  were  up  in  a  balloon,  he  could 
count  hundreds  of  them  while  his  aerial  craft  floated 
the  length  of  Lake  Tahoe,  and  each  and  every  one  is 
a  jewel  of  sapphire,  emerald,  lapis  lazuli,  with  occasional 
flashings  of  pearl,  opal  and  diamond,  fixed  in  settings  of 
incomparable  grandeur  and  majesty. 

From  most  of  the  peaks  one  looks  down  into  areas 
that  in  bygone  ages  were  the  scenes  of  battles  between 
gigantic  glaciers.  Hundreds  of  square  miles  of  the 
granite  mountains  have  been  scored,  planed,  gouged  out, 
fluted  and  bevelled  by  these  icy  blankets,  weighing  mil- 
lions of  tons,  and  carrying  other  millions  of  tons  of 
rocky  debris  upon  their  surfaces  to  be  deposited  as  lateral 
and  terminal  moraines  for  puny  man  of  later  centuries 
to  climb  over  and  peck  into  with  geological  pick  and 
hammer. 

Desolation  Valley,  which  is  the  first  valley  east  of  the 
last  ridge  of  the  peaks  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  is  one  great 
plane  of  glacially  polished  granite.  Where  the  gougings 
were  deepest  lakes  are  now  found,  and  around  these 
grow  white  and  purple  heather  that  in  delicate  beauty 
and  sweet  fragrance  thrill  the  senses  of  a  Scotchman 
with  delight.  Tucked  in  on  larger  or  smaller  shelves 
on  the  mountain  slopes  at  different  altitudes  are  scores 
and  scores  of  other  glacially  formed  lakes,  while  every 
valley  has  one  or  more  of  these  beautiful  bodies  of  water 
nestling  in  serene  quietude,  while  nesting  birds  sing  their 
sweet  lullabys  in  the  flags  and  sedges  or  mountain  trees 
which  surround  them. 

Slowly,  as  the  people  of  the  West  have  gained  more 
leisure  to  turn  to  the  pleasures  of  Nature  from  their 
material  strugglings.  Lake  Tahoe  has  attracted  an  in- 
creasing number  of  summer  visitors.  To  care  for  these 
over  twenty  different  resorts  and  camps  have  been  estab- 


244     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

lished,  from  the  commodious,  elaborate  and  luxurious 
Tahoe  Tavern  to  the  humblest  camp  where  tenter  or 
hunter  finds  his  simplest  wants  provided  for. 

The  Tavern  is  situated  at  the  end  of  the  railway,  which 
connects  with  the  Southern  Pacific  at  Truckee.  It  is  on 
the  immediate  shore,  not  far  from  the  outlet ,  of  the 
Truckee  River,  and  is  beautifully  surrounded  by  giant 
sugar  pines  and  other  trees.  As  a  hotel  it  has  but  one 
fault,  and  that  is  it  is  so  attractive  within  itself  that 
many  visitors  are  satisfied  to  remain  in  the  perfect  en- 
joyments it  affords  of  excellent  food,  perfect  sleeping 
accommodations,  a  thousand  glorious  views  from  porch, 
lawn  and  window,  while  miles  of  easy  walking  in  the 
near-by  park  and  on  the  lake  shore  afford  all  the  exer- 
cise one  needs  for  health. 

The  steamer  plies  around  the  Lake  daily  during  all 
the  summer  months,  and  thrice  or  twice  a  week  in  win- 
ter. At  the  south  end  rises  Mt.  Tallac  —  the  chief 
mountain  as  the  Indians  regard  it,  though  two  or  three 
other  peaks  rise  actually  higher  —  and  claiming  that 
name  for  his  hotel,  E.  J.  Baldwin,  one  of  the  pioneers 
of  Virginia  City,  built  what  for  many  years  was  the  most 
important  hotel  on  the  Lake.  Tallac  House  became 
world  famed,  but  naturally  as  the  years  have  passed 
it  has  become  somewhat  old-fashioned  and  out  of  date. 
Shortly  prior  to  his  death,  however,  Mr.  Baldwin  planned 
the  erection  of  a  new,  commodious,  modern  hotel, 
slightly  to  the  east  of  the  old  Tallac  House.  The  founda- 
tion stone  was  laid  amid  great  rejoicings,  and  work  con- 
tinued rapidly,  the  whole  of  the  foundations  being  com- 
pleted when  his  summons  came,  at  the  ripe  old  age  of 
eighty-six,  to  pass  on.  One  result  of  his  death  was  the 
immediate  cessation  of  the  work,  but  Mrs.  Anita  Baldwin 
McClaughry,  of  the  Santa  Anita  Ranch,  near  Los  An- 


The  Lake  Tahoe  Region  245 

geles,  has  announced  that  in  due  time  she  purposes  car- 
rying out  her  father's  plan,  except  that  she  will  make 
the  whole  structure  fireproof  throughout. 

Al  Tahoe  and  Lakeside  are  also  fine  resorts,  the  former 
one  of  the  newer  of  the  better  class  hotels,  while  the  Glen- 
brook,  on  the  Nevada  shore,  is  as  homelike,  comfortable 
and  enjoyable  as  any  but  the  most  luxurious  could  de- 
mand. At  the  north  end  Mr.  L.  P.  Delano,  of  Reno, 
is  seeking  to  establish  a  high-class  Club  House,  giving 
to  members  lakeside  privileges  that  they  themselves  can 
control,  while  the  invalid  or  neurasthenic,  the  physically 
overworked  or  mentally  overtaxed,  who  are  benefited 
by  baths  in  naturally  hot  springs,  find  at  Brockways  that 
rest,  care  and  natural  stimulation  that  will  restore  them 
to  health. 

To  those,  however,  who  love  the  simpler  phases  of 
life  and  who  revel  in  the  enjo}anent  of  Nature,  where 
luxurious  living  is  not  provided,  there  are  five  especially 
charming  camps  that  can  be  highly  commended.  These 
are,  I.  Deer  Park  Springs,  in  one  of  the  charming  can- 
yons a  few  miles  from  the  Lake,  where  mountain  trails, 
hunting  and  the  most  enjoyable  fishing  in  glacial  lakes 
allure  one  into  the  open  all  the  time ;  IL  Emerald  Bay 
Camp,  where  Mr.  N.  L.  Salter,  of  Yosemite  Valley  fame, 
provides  in  similar  fashion  for  his  guests ;  IIL  Fallen 
Leaf  Lodge,  where  Professor  W.  W.  Price,  a  Stanford 
man,  versed  in  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  country  and 
able  to  give  one  more  scientific  information  about  the 
region  than  is  commonly  possessed,  gathers  each  year  a 
fine  class  of  visitors ;  IV.  Cathedral  Park,  on  Fallen- 
Leaf  Lake,  where  a  former  guide,  Mr.  Flugge,  has  estab- 
lished a  homelike  resort,  and  V.  Glen  Alpine  Springs, 
one  of  the  first  of  the  camp-like  resorts,  where  simplicity 
reigns  supreme,  and  where  Nature  is  worshipped  more 


246     California,  Eomantic  and  Beautiful 

than  fashion,  and  the  healthful  and  tasty  food  prepared 
is  made  delicious  by  hours  of  mountain  climbing,  boat- 
ing, fishing,  or  studying  the  glacial  lakes  and  other  phe- 
nomena that  led  David  Starr  Jordan  to  declare  that 
''  nowhere  in  the  world  is  there  a  finer  specimen  of  a 
glacial  valley  than  the  wild,  rough,  barren  territory 
known  as  '  Desolation  Valley,'  above  Glen  Alpine 
Springs,  and  there  is  no  finer  specimen  of  a  glacier-made 
lake  than  the  excavated  gorge  filled  with  water,  which 
bears  the  name  of  Heather  Lake.  The  carbonated  spring 
around  Avhich  the  hotel  property  centres  is  one  of  the 
finest  in  the  mountains." 

There  are  other  well-known  camps  on  the  Lake,  such 
as  McKinney's,  Homewood,  Bijou  and  The  Grove,  all 
of  which  have  their  admiring  clients. 

Lake  Tahoe  is  essentially  a  resort  for  the  automobilist. 
It  seems  that  not  only  has  Nature  especially  favoured 
her  in  endowing  her  with  such  a  plethora  of  never- 
fading  charms,  but  she  also  so  planned  the  location  that 
men  have  made  it  one  of  the  most  easily  accessible  of 
California  mountain  resorts.  In  reality  one  would  nat- 
urally think  of  it  as  far  away,  remote,  inaccessible,  but 
the  making  of  the  pioneer  roads  over  the  mountains, 
and  then  the  fact  that  it  was  on  the  direct  line  of  the 
road  to  the  mines  of  Virginia  City,  gave  to  the  earliest 
inhabitants  good  roads  directly  to  its  camps  and  hotels. 
Later  a  fine  road  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierras 
was  constructed,  so  that  now  first-class  State  automobile 
highways,  winding  their  way  through  such  scenery  as 
only  the  High  Sierras  afford,  reach  Lake  Tahoe  from 
three  directions  in  California,  and  two  in  Nevada.  For 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Lake  is  partially  in 
Nevada  as  well  as  California.  In  19 13  a  new  automobile 
road  was  completed  around  the  west  shore  of  the  Lake, 


The  Lake  Tahoe  Region  247 

thus  affording  every  visitor  the  opportunity  of  viewing 
its  supreme  charms  from  an  elevation  of  about  five  hun- 
dred feet.  Taking  the  ride  slowly  these  superior  points 
of  vantage  will  bring  out  in  the  most  perfect  fashion  the 
beautiful  colourings  of  the  water.  The  sharp  lines  of 
cleavage  betw^een  the  blue  and  green,  the  sapphire  and 
the  emerald,  and  the  softer  oranges  and  yellows  are 
made  vivid  at  these  angles  and  altitudes. 

Taking  it  all  in  all  the  Tahoe  region  is  one  of  the 
most  desirable  regions  not  only  California,  or  the  United 
States,  but  the  whole  world  possesses. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

SOUTHERN    CALIFORNIA 

Southern  California  is  generally  regarded  as  that 
part  of  the  State  "below  the  Tehachipi."  It  comprises 
the  counties  of  Santa  Barbara,  Los  Angeles,  Orange,  San 
Bernardino,  Riverside,  San  Diego  and  Imperial.  In  its 
confines  there  are  three-score  or  more  of  growing  towns 
—  like  Monrovia,  Pasadena,  Glendora,  Duarte,  Pomona, 
Ontario,  Covina,  Riverside,  Redlands,  Orange,  Santa 
Ana,  Fullerton,  Anaheim,  Ventura,  Oxnard,  Santa  Paula, 
with  such  seaside  resorts  as  Long  Beach,  Santa  Monica, 
Ocean  Park,  Redondo,  and  Venice,  each  of  which  could 
well  receive  half  a  dozen  or  a  dozen  pages  of  this  book. 
I  am  compelled  to  pass  them  by  with  this  most  cursory 
reference  owing  to  the  necessary  limitations  of  space. 
Progress  has  been,  and  is,  so  rapid  in  this  favoured 
region  that  by  the  time  it  is  recorded  it  is  already  out- 
of-date. 

It  might  well  be  expected,  even  by  one  unfamiliar  with 
local  conditions,  that  in  the  long  stretch  of  country  owned 
by  California  there  would  be  great  varieties  of  climate 
and  scenery.  This  fact  cannot  be  too  strongly  empha- 
sized, and  it  is  one  of  California's  great  claims  upon  the 
attention  of  the  world.  It  can  offer  such  varied  topog- 
raphy and  climate.  A  broad  and  general  survey  of 
Southern  California  shows  that  it  has  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  of  shore  line,  from  Point  Concepcion  to 
Tia  Juana  beach.     This  curves  inward  from  the  north- 

248 


Southern  California  249 

west  to  the  southeast,  so  that  the  main  trend  of  a  large 
part  of  the  coast  from  Santa  Barbara  south  is  east  and 
west,  rather  than  north  and  south.  Beyond  this  lies  the 
alluvial  plain  upon  which  the  glowing  orange  and  lemon, 
peach  and  apricot,  plum  and  almond  orchards  delight  the 
eye  and  enrich  the  purse.  Still  furtlier  to  the  east  rise 
the  mountains,  over  which  lie  the  Mohave  and  Colorado 
"  Deserts."  It  is  this  peculiar  juxtaposition  of  ocean, 
plain,  mountain  and  desert  that  create  the  unique  cli- 
matic condition  with  which  Southern  California  is 
blessed. 

For  many  years  this  region  was  sneeringly  denomi- 
nated the  "  Cow  Country.''  It  was  deemed  useless  ex- 
cept as  a  cattle  pasture.  But  in  the  late  seventies  a  few, 
more  observant  and  thoughtful  than  their  fellows,  began 
to  see  other  possibilities  here.  The  asset  of  climate  had, 
as  yet,  scarcely  been  intelligently  considered.  They  be- 
gan to  sound  the  loud  timbrel  on  this  theme.  The  Santa 
Fe  railway  in  time  was  built  from  Chicago  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  then  began  the  "  boom  "  that,  so  long  as  it 
lasted,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  instances  of 
frenzied  speculation  ever  witnessed. 

One  of  the  earliest  "  visionaries  "  with  the  practical 
mind  was  the  firm  of  Raymond  &  Whitcomb,  of  Boston, 
who  arranged  excursions  for  the  people  of  the  East.  A 
fine  site,  on  a  commanding  knoll,  was  ofifered  them  if 
they  would  erect  a  tourist  hotel  there.  The  offer  was 
accepted  and  the  hotel  built.  This  and  Hotel  del  Coro- 
nado  were  important  factors  in  the  early  upbuilding  of 
Southern  California.  Then  came  also  the  Hotel  Ar- 
cadia at  Santa  Monica,  the  Sierra  Madre  Villa  in  the 
foothills  beyond  Pasadena,  the  Painter  and  Green  at 
Pasadena,  the  Glenwood  at  Riverside,  the  Windsor  and 
Casa  Loma  at  Redlands,  the  Arlington  at  Santa  Barbara, 


250     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

all  of  which,  as  they  catered  to  the  well-being,  comfort 
and  luxury  of  the  Eastern  tourist  did  their  share  in  in- 
creasing the  fame  of  the  land.  The  rapid  growth  of  the 
country  has  been  one  of  the  reamarkable  phenomena  of 
modern  times.  In  1880  Los  Angeles  bad  a  population 
of  about  twelve  thousand.  In  1890  it  had  sprung  to 
about  fifty  thousand.  The  federal  census  of  1900  gave 
it  102,479,  of  1910,  319,198,  the  directory  census  of 
1913,  483,417,  and  it  is  pretty  certain  that  it  has  already 
passed  the  half  million  mark.  And  the  wonderful  fact 
is  that  the  whole  country  has  developed  in  about  the 
same  proportion.  Forty  years  ago  there  was  no  Pasa- 
dena. To-day  it  boasts  a  population  of  forty  thousand, 
with  more  beautiful  homes  in  proportion  to  its  size  than 
any  other  city  in  existence.  Thirty  years  ago  Long 
Beach  had  its  beginnings.  In  1903  the  federal  census 
gave  it  a  population  of  2,052  people.  To-day  it  has  fully 
forty-five  thousand ;  and  so  on  might  the  progressive 
record  be  given. 

Naturally  the  stranger  wonders  what  can  have  brought 
labout  this  wonderful  development.  The  answer  is  sim- 
ple. First,  climate  and  scenery,  second,  the  development 
of  the  land  by  irrigation,  third,  the  discovery  of  oil, 
fourth,  the  development  of  hydro-electric  power  in  the 
mountains  and  its  cheap  transmission  over  long  dis- 
tances. Each  of  these  development  factors  is  treated 
elsewhere  in  these  pages. 

There  are  seven  entrances  by  railway  to  this  land  of 
the  orange  and  vine,  cotton  and  the  date.  The  Sunset 
route  of  the  Southern  Pacific,  aoros-s  the  Colorado  River 
at  Yuma,  past  the  Imperial  and  through  the  Coachella 
Valleys  and  over  the  San  Gorgonio  Pass;  the  Santa  Fe 
and  Salt  Lake  routes  over  the  Colorado  River  at  the 
Needles  and  over  the  Mohave  Desert  and  El  Cajon  Pass ; 


Southern  California  251 

the  Valley  line  of  the  Southern  Pacific,  through  the  San 
Joaquin  Valley  and  over  the  Tehachipi  grade;  and  the 
Coast  line  of  the  Southern  Pacific  by  Santa  Barbara  and 
over  the  Chatsworth  grade.  The  ocean  highway  and  the 
aerial  lines  are  also  open  and  both  are  now  being  more 
or  less  extensively  used. 

While  the  Avinter  climate  of  Southern  California  has 
become  famous  for  its  generally  delightful,  stimulating 
and  enjoyable  qualities,  only  those  experiencing  it  know 
the  charm  of  the  summer  climate.  It  is  no  exaggeration 
to  say  that,  taking  it  all  in  all,  the  summer  is  by  far  the 
best  time  to  visit  Southern  California.  The  ordinary 
reasoning  of  the  Eastern  mind  is  here  entirely  at  fault, 
when  it  assumes  that,  because  the  winter  is  so  warm,  the 
summer  therefore  must  be  unendurably  hot.  Take  San 
Diego  as  an  illustration,  for  we  have  accurate  weather 
records  of  its  daily  temperature  since  1872.  The  lowest 
temiperature  registered  in  January  from  1872  to  19 12 
was  in  1880,  1883,  and  1894,  when  it  went  to  32°.  The 
highest  temperature  in  August,  between  the  same  period, 
was  in  1909,  w^hen  it  reached  93°.  The  figures,  however, 
generally  average  around  80°  for  a  maximum. 

Perhaps  this  is  hardly  a  fair  example,  as  San  Diego's 
temperature,  as  I  have  elsewhere  affirmed,  is  the  most 
equable  of  any  known  spot  in  the  temperate  zone  on  the 
habitable  globe.  But  it  gives  the  general  idea.  Other 
places  have  a  slightly  wider  range,  both  for  heat  and 
cold,  but  what  I  wish  to  assert  with  emphasis  is  that  the 
summers  are  equally  delightful  —  and  many  say  more  so 
—  except  for  a  few  rare  days,  than  is  the  winter. 

The  close  proximity  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  with  its 
vast  volume  of  water  maintaining  a  remarkably  stable 
temperature,  the  fact  that  there  are  few  or  no  hills  be- 
tween the  ocean  and  the  habited  plain  to  create  unpleas- 


252     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ant  winds,  and  the  'high  mountain  barrier  shutting  off  the 
heated  air  of  the  desert  are  the  secrets  of  the  cool  sum- 
mer cHmate  of  this  blessed  country. 

The  winter  of  19 12-13  ^^^^  the  worst  cold  spell  the 
country  had  experienced  since  it  came  into  the  possession 
of  the  United  States.  The  orange,  lemon  and  grapefruit 
crops  were  seriously  injured.  Few  trees,  however,  save 
young  lemon  trees,  were  destroyed.  The  fact  that  it 
caught  most  of  the  fruit  growers  unprepared  is  the  best 
proof  possible  of  its  unexpectedness  and  rareness.  And 
so  confident  are  the  people  of  its  rare  occurrence  that  it 
has  not  interfered  perceptibly  one  particle  in  the  industry 
—  work  has  gone  on  in  the  orchards  just  the  'same,  de- 
velopment and  new  growth  has  continued  as  before,  and 
prices  have  not  dropped  one  per  cent. 

Unquestionably  the  most  astonishing  of  all  the  won- 
derful development  of  Southern  California  has  been  in 
the  Colorado  Desert,  and  this  has  demanded  an  especial 
chapter  for  its  consideration.  The  desert  as  an  agricul- 
tural and  horticultural  centre  was  a  new  thought  even  in 
Southern  California  little  over  ten  years  ago.  Now  the 
whole  countr}^  has  felt  the  impetus  of  the  new  thought 
and  Palmdale,  Antelope  Valley,  the  Alohave  Valley  and 
a  score  of  desert  oases  have  already  sprung  into  flourish- 
ing existence.  Water  is  the  keynote  to  the  change.  As 
one  witty  paraphrase  has  it : 

"  Little  drops  of  water  poured  on  grains  of  sand, 
Make  a  mighty  difference  in  the  price  of  land." 

Water  has  been  found  everywhere  underlying  the  soil, 
at  varying  depths,  but  pumping  is  made  cheap  by  fuel  oil 
and  electricity  and  even  deep  pumping,  as,  for  instance, 
at  Corona,  where  the  water  has  to  be  raised  seventy-five 
feet,  for  irrigating  the  orange  orchards,  does  not  hinder 


Southern  California  253 

the  orange  growers  from  making  good  returns  from 
their  crops. 

But  with  all  its  development  in  many  and  various  lines 
it  cannot  be  denied  that  Southern  California's  chief 
assets  are  its  climate  and  scenery  in  that  they  attract 
hundreds  of  tliousands  of  wealthy  people  from  all  parts 
of  the  world  each  year  to  enjoy  them.  The  result  is  the 
growth  of  the  fashionable  and  luxurious  tourist  hotel  to 
an  extent  not  surpassed  in  the  populous  centres  of  the 
East.  Santa  Barbara  has  its  Arlington  and  Potter,  both 
of  them  unusual  structures,  the  latter  on  the  beach  and 
surrounded  by  myriads  of  flowers  ;  Hollywood  —  a  sul> 
urb  of  Los  Angeles,  has  its  Hollywood  and  Beverley 
Hills ;  Long  Beach  its  Virginia ;  Del  Mar  its  Stratford, 
but  of  all  the  hotels  of  Southern  California,  indeed  of 
the  whole  State,  the  Mission  Inn  at  Riverside  is  the  one 
that  provokes  and  deserves  especial  comment. 

Conceived  by  three  poets  —  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frank 
Miller  and  his  sister,  Mrs.  Richardson,  —  romance  and 
sentiment  were  mixed  in  the  cement  and  gravel  of  its 
foundations,  and  have  continued  up  to  its  tower  cap- 
stones. Poetry,  romance  and  sentiment  flow  from  it, 
radiate  in  every  direction,  so  that  it  begins  to  permeate 
the  visitor  even  before  he  enters  its  unique  precincts. 
The  arched  corridors  that  line  the  streets  on  the  hotel 
block,  while  not  obtrusive,,  are  different.  They  demand 
attention  in  a  quietly  insistent  fashion  and  lead  the  eye 
to  the  red  tiled  roofs,  the  campanile,  the  architectural 
distinctions,  the  swinging  bells,  the  saintly  fignres  of  the 
main  building  beyond. 

Frank  Miller  came  to  Riverside  when  a  mere  boy, 
forty  years  ago.  His  father  founded  the  Glenwood  Inn, 
an  ordinary  small  town  hotel  in  the  early  days  of  River- 
side.    Hence  he  was  practically  born  into  the  hotel  busi- 


254     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ness.  It  was  his  first  and  only  occupation.  But  he  was 
a  poet ;  so  was  his  sister ;  and  when  he  married  he  chose 
for  his  wife  another  poet.  Though  protestants  in  their 
rehgious  faith  they  all  had  that  large-heartedness  of 
spiritual  vision  that  is  able  to  glorify  the  noble  and 
heroic  in  those  of  another  faith.  Their  love  of  Califor- 
nia led  them  to  a  full  study  of  the  remnant  bands  of  the 
Indians  —  those  aboriginal  tribes  that  used  to  cover  the 
valleys  and  foothills  with  their  rude  kishes  and  kans  in 
which  their  healthy  and  happy  offspring  were  born  and 
lived.  They  became  interested  in  their  avocations,  their 
primitive  pottery  and  their  exquisite  and  dainty  bas- 
ketry. The  facts  behind  the  story  of  Ranioua  soon 
became  well  known  to  them.  Their  deepest  sympathies 
were  aroused.  They  studied  the  history  of  Ramona's 
people.  The  Old  Franciscan  Mission  structures  had 
always  appealed  to  them,  but  as  soon  as  they  got  hold 
more  fully  of  the  human  idea  that  these  Missions  were 
founded  and  conducted  by  the  Franciscan  padres  purely 
for  the  spiritual,  mental  and  social  uplift  of  the  degraded 
savages  of  California,  they  took  on  a  new  and  fuller 
significance.  For  Mr.  Miller  if  anything  is  intensely 
human.  Poetry  to  appeal  to  him  must  be  full  of  the  red- 
veined  heart  of  humanity.  The  Missions  became  more 
than  churches  to  him.  His  vivid  and  creative  imagina- 
tion soon  saw  each  of  these  Missions  as  the  leavening 
centre  of  a  vast  Indian  population.  He  reconstructed 
the  workshops,  the  forges,  the  mills,  the  looms,  the  thou- 
sand and  one  industries  that  went  on  under  the  guidance 
and  control  of  the  wise  and  practical  padres.  He  saw 
that  they  demonstrated  their  love  to  God  by  their  self- 
sacrificing,  consecrated  love  to  their  degraded  fellow 
human  beings.  He  began  to  honour,  respect  and  love 
these  consecrated  men  as  he  had  never  done  before ;   he 


Southern  California  255 

revered  their  devotion  to  God,  but  his  heart  warmed  in 
fullest  sympathy  when  he  visioned  their  active  work  for 
the  benefit  and  blessing  of  the  California  savages. 

Then  he  studied  the  growth  of  California  life  on  its 
other  planes.  He  saw  the  Spanish  colonists  come  in. 
He  followed,  in  imagination,  that  procession  of  men  and 
women  over  the  wastes  of  the  Gila  and  Colorado  River 
deserts  from  Northern  Sonora,  who  caine  to  people  the 
new  settlement  of  San  Francisco,  and  those  who  estab- 
lished San  Jose,  Santa  Cruz,  San  Diego  and  Los  An- 
geles. He  gained  a  sure  and  comprehensive  knowledge 
of  their  social  development.  He  followed  them,  as  they 
rode  their  peerless  horses,  to  their  fiestas,  and  bailies 
and  barbecues,  and  watched  tliem  lat  their  dances,  and 
contests  of  skill  and  horsemanship  in  the  field.  He  saw 
them  at  their  rodeos,  or  round-ups  of  cattle  and  horses, 
and  got  into  the  spirit  of  their  large-hearted,  free-handed 
life  with  one  another.  He  was  soon  saturated  with  the 
spirit  of  "  the  splendid  idle  forties,"  and  the  glorious 
open-handed  "  thirties,"  and  tlie  reckless  friendly  "  twen- 
ties," and  the  hospitable,  generous  "  tens."  He  saw  how 
the  Missions  fitted  into  this  unique  pastoral  life,  so  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  sordid  German,  the  cheese-paring 
Scotchman,  the  money-loving  Englishman,  and  even  of 
his  own  Puritan  and  Quaker  ancestry  of  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries.  For  here  in  Spanish  house  and 
sacred  Mission  the  stranger  was  ever  welcome  to  the 
fullest  hospitality  of  home,  bed  and  board.  Horses  were 
found  for  those  who  needed  them ;  guides  were  fur- 
nished ;  food  was  supplied,  with  a  generous  abandon 
known  only  in  the  land  of  the  sun  that  warms  the  heart 
to  keenest  brotherhood. 

Without  money  and  without  price  the  bounty  of  the 
Missions  was  given  to  every  passer  by.     His  need  was 


256     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  only  question  as  to  his  fitness  to  receive.  Even  his 
gratitude  was  not  anticipated.  To  give  freely,  gener- 
ously, bountifully  of  the  best  they  had  to  all  who  needed, 
was  a  part  of  the  every-day  religion  of  these  padres  of 
the  olden  time,  in  addition  to  their  unselfish  care,  edu- 
cation and  Christianization  of  the  savages. 

All  these  things  Mr.  Miller  saw  and  felt,  until  they 
began  to  ferment  within  his  inmost  soul.  Brain  and 
heart  had  long  been  employed  with  them,  but  now  his 
soul  —  himself  —  was  interested,  engaged,  enthralled. 
The  question  sprang  into  being :  Why  cannot  a  modern 
hotel  be  conducted  on  modern  methods,  yet  fully  imbued 
with  as  much  of  the  spirit  of  real  hospitality,  genuine 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  guest,  personal  seeking  for 
his  comfort  as  was  manifested  by  these  men  of  God 
whose  every-day  life  was  a  manifestation  of  their  re- 
ligion? 

The  idea  grew.  Its  feasibility  soon  became  apparent, 
because,  in  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Miller,  and  in  Mrs.  Richardson, 
the  spirit  to  do,  and  be,  was  within  them. 

The  town  of  Riverside  was  growing.  The  fame  of 
the  climate  of  Southern  California  was  broadening  and 
widening.  Thousands  flocked  to  the  Land  of  Perpetual 
Summer.  They  wanted  to  see  the  town  where  oranges 
could  be  picked  and  eaten  in  shirt-waists  and  sum- 
mer tweeds,  while  the  horizon  line  was  glorified  with 
ten-thousand-feet-high-mountain-peaks  bathed  in  virgin 
snow.  The  Glcnzvood  grew  in  size  and  business.  Soon 
its  enlarged  capacity  was  more  than  reached. 

Now  came  the  time  to  create  in  concrete  and  objective 
form  the  vision  that  had  been  growing  during  the  past 
years.  Mr.  Arthur  B.  Benton,  one  of  Los  Angeles's 
most  individualistic  architects,  a  man  of  vision  and  prac- 
tical power,  was  called  into  what  had  hitherto  been  a 


Southern  California  257 

family  conclave.  His  genius  was  fired  and  plans  were 
soon  prepared  for  the  erection  of  a  hotel,  to  be  different 
from  any  yet  constructed.  It  was  to  suggest  through- 
out —  in  patio,  entrance,  lobby,  hall,  dining-room,  loung- 
ing-rooms,  bedrooms  —  the  warm,  cordial  hospitality  of 
the  homes  of  the  old  Padres,  yet  able  to  meet  all  the  de- 
mands of  the  most  exacting  and  world-blase  travellers. 

Mr.  Miller's  neighbours,  his  co-workers  in  the  hotel- 
field  throughout  California  looked  on  in  amazement  as 
Mr.  Benton's  architectural  ideas  took  visible  form. 
Slowly  the  structure  arose,  and  questions  arose  with  it 
on  every  hand.  What  did  it  mean?  What  was  Miller 
aiming  at?  The  first  glimpses  of  a  new  idea  struck  them 
strangely.  The  poet's  fancy,  his  carefully  thought  out 
vision,  seemed  to  them  a  foolish  dream,  a  nightmare 
monstrosity  that  would  involve  him  in  ridicule  and  dis- 
aster. But  glor}^  be  for  the  men  who  know.  The  men 
who  are  willing  to  be  led  by  the  larger,  grander,  nobler 
vision.  Quietly  but  insistently  Mr.  Miller  went  on  with 
his  building.  The  simplicity  and  near-rudeness  of  the 
doors,  and  interiors,  and  fireplaces,  and  ironwork, 
shocked  the  susceptibilities  of  the  nouveau-riche  who 
contended  that  nobody  who  was  anybody  would  ever 
think  of  "  putting  up  "  with  such  rude  trimmings.  But 
regardless  of  the  prophets  of  disaster  and  woe  the  build- 
ers went  ahead,  and  the  building  was  completed.  In  the 
meantime  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Miller  bad  furniture  made  to 
suit  their  ideas,  and  they  ransacked  the  East,  Europe 
and  Mexico  for  objects  of  art,  virtu  and  handicraft  that 
would  add  to  the  spirit  of  their  enterprise. 

Figures  of  saints  were  placed  here,  there  and  every- 
where; morning,  noon  and  night  the  chimes  pealed 
forth  their  silvery  tones  in  church  chorals,  folk-songs, 
and  the  homely  music  of  the  people;    photographs  and 


258     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

paintings  lined  the  walls,  indicative  of  the  spirit  and  life 
of  the  Mission  epoch ;  stained  glass  windows  set  forth 
the  social  life  and  industries  of  Indians,  Spaniards  and 
Mexicans  in  the  old-time  pastoral  days  "  before  the 
gringo  came,"  and  in  and  through  and  above  and  over 
all  the  genuine  spirit  of  true-hearted  hospitality  brooded 
and  asserted  itself. 

The  results  have  demonstrated  the  practical  wisdom  of 
the  poets'  visions.  The  capacity  of  the  Mission  Inn  has 
been  overtaxed  year  after  year,  so  that  the  sound  of  the 
hammer  and  axe  are  never  still  during  the  summer 
months  enlarging  for  the  following  winter  season,  when 
the  large  influx  of  tourists  demands  more  and  more  the 
restful  and  pleasing  accommodations  this  replica  of  the 
old  Mission  days  affords. 

The  crypt  is  a  banquet-hall,  the  refectory  a  meeting- 
place  of  knights  and  their  ladies  of  good-fellowship,  the 
chapel  a  music-room  where  sonorous  organ  music,  with 
sweet  accompaniment  of  harp,  violin,  and  cello  daily  in- 
spire the  soul  and  strengthen  the  heart  to  nobler  deeds. 

Mr.  Miller  has  gathered  together  also  wonderful  col- 
lections of  Indian  baskets,  rare  old  bells  and  unique 
crosses,  each  of  which  is  worthy  a  chapter  in  this  book. 

Altogether  the  Mission  Inn  is  one  of  the  rare  beauty 
spots  of  California,  full  of  charm  and  delight  to  the  eye, 
enhanced  by  the  wealth  of  Romance,  Sentiment  and  His- 
tory that  hover  about  its  every  part,  making  it  the  rarest, 
the  most  charming  and  the  most  unique  of  America's 
hotels,  and  probably,  of  the  hotels  of  the  world. 

In  its  homes,  too,  Southern  California  is  peculiarly 
rich.  Santa  Barbara,  Pasadena,  Monrovia,  San  Diego, 
Ontario,  Riverside,  and  a  half  a  score  of  towns  are 
famous  for  their  fine  residences.  Some  of  them  may 
well  be  termed  "  palatial."     They  are  palaces  that  in  the 


Southern  California  259 

surpassing  grandeur  of  their  exteriors,  the  rich  elaborate- 
ness of  their  interiors  more  than  vie  with  the  old  time 
palaces  of  Europe.  Yet  they  are  not  over-adorned  in- 
side or  out.  There  is  a  refined  delicacy  about  most  of 
them  that  charms  the  least  susceptible. 

One  of  the  finest  and  most  pleasing  of  these  homes  is 
that  of  Mrs.  Anita  Baldwin  McClaughry,  the  daughter 
of  E.  J.  Baldwin,  for  so  many  years  one  of  the  noted 
pioneers  of  the  State.  When  he  died,  he  left  his  princely 
domain  near  Pasadena,  known  as  the  Santa  Anita  Ranch, 
with  great  plans  for  its  development,  incomplete.  Know- 
ing her  father's  desires  Mrs.  McClaughry,  as  soon  as 
the  estate  was  partitioned,  set  herself  to  carry  them  out. 

Regardless  of  expense  the  work  is  progressing  rapidly, 
and  ere  long  this  3,500  acre  ranch  will  be  one  of  the  finest 
and  best  developed  in  the  State.  All  the  old  buildings 
are  being  torn  down,  and  replaced  with  modern  struc- 
tures of  concrete,  and  every  acre  is  to  be  made  produc- 
tive to  the  highest  extent. 

In  order  personally  to  superintend  the  work  of  the 
ranch  Mrs.  McClaughry  erected  her  home  upon  it.  It 
is  a  California  manifestation  of  the  architectural  style 
known  as  the  Italian  renaissance,  —  light,  airy  and 
sunny,  every  room  receiving  direct  sunshine  during 
some  time  of  the  day.  The  gentle  knoll,  or  loma,  upon 
which  the  house  stands  in  the  heart  of  its  beautiful  park, 
adds  to  its  impressive  beauty  and  quiet  dignity. 

One  of  the  first  features  that  arrests  the  attention  is 
tihe  fact  that  the  live  oaks  that  have  always  been  one 
of  the  native  glories  of  the  Baldwin  estate  are  carefully 
preserved  and  taken  into  full  account  in  the  landscape 
gardening  that  the  building  of  the  home  has  necessitated. 
Scarcely  one  has  been  removed.  Their  life  and  well- 
being  have  been  of  primary  consideration,  and  the  result 


260     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

is  a  charming  and  powerfully  attractive  blending  of  the 
native  and  artificially-domesticated  trees  that  preserves 
in  heightened  tone,  the  distinctively  California  quality  of 
the  landscape.  Scores  of  other  native  trees  and  shrubs 
are  planted  in  the  gardens,  so  that  as  one's  eye  falls  upon 
roses,  wistaria,  lilies,  fuchsias,  dahlias,  chrysanthemums 
and  a  thousand  and  one  garden  flowers,  he  sees  at  the 
same  time  the  blooming  adenostema,  ceanothus,  yuccas, 
baby-blue-eyes,  scarlet  trumpets,  calchortus,  etc.,  which 
link  together,  in  novel  but  most  effective  fashion,  the 
enclosed  area  of  the  garden  with  the  wild  of  God's  great- 
out-of-doors  on  'the  mountain  slopes  beyond. 

The  house  is  modern  in  every  respect,  with  sun- 
porches,  open-air  sleeping-rooms,  ideal  quarters  for  the 
help,  large  and  commodious  library,  Indian  hall,  jinks- 
room,  bowling-alley,  billiiard-hall,  a  kitchen  that  would 
be  the  pride  of  many  a  noted  hotel  chef,  and  with  its  own 
refrigerating  plant  and  coolers,  with  ice-making  equip- 
ment added. 

Close  to  the  bouse  is  a  miniature  Parthenon.  Its  clas- 
sic and  simple  dignity  harmonizes  Avell  with  its  arboreal 
and  mountain  environment.  It  is  a  temple  for  the  wor- 
ship of  physical  and  mental  well-being,  for  its  altar  is 
the  swimming  pool,  of  clear  pellucid  water  from  the 
mountains,  warmed  by  the  wooing  of  the  ardent  Cali- 
fornia sunshine,  and  thus  tempting  to  an  open-air  daily 
plunge  and  swim. 

It  should  be  remarked  that  all  the  paintings  that  adorn 
the  wialls  of  Mrs.  McClaughry's  home  are  by  California 
artists. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

IN    AND    AROUND    LOS    ANGELES 

In  its  growth  Los  Angeles  is  the  wonder  city  of  the 
world.  In  1880  it  was  a  sleepy  Mexican  pueblo,  with 
American  trimmings,  and  a  population  of  12,000.  In 
19 14  it  is  the  most  active,  bustling,  aggressive,  growing 
city  in  America,  with  a  population  of  over  half  a  million, 
and  the  assurance  to  claim  that  by  1920  it  will  have 
reached  the  million  mark. 

Los  Angeles  is  a  concrete  example  of  the  power  of 
effective  advertising,  when  there  is  something  to  adver- 
tise. Whatever  her  cliques  and  factions,  her  dissensions 
and  differences  she  stands  united  when  advertising  is 
to  be  done.  The  proprietors  of  her  newspapers  have 
ever  been  "  scrappers  "  one  with  another,  yet  when  it 
comes  to  singing  the  praises  of  Los  x^ngeles  their  voices 
ascend  in  perfect  harmony.  Labour  and  capital  have 
their  fights  in  Los  Angeles  as  elsewhere,  yet  they  are 
found  shoulder  to  shoulder,  arm  in  arm,  and  both  use 
their  most  seductive  accents,  w^hen  telling  the  outside 
world  about  Los  Angeles.  The  railways  and  steamsliip 
companies  have  spent  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars  in  attracting  attention  to  this  city  and  its  sur- 
rounding country,  for  it  is  a  long  way  from  the  East 
and  from  Europe  and  fares  are  heavy  and  traffic  rates 
high.  Not  that  they  are  exorbitant,  but  that  the  dis- 
tances are  so  great  they  amount  to  so  much  more  than 
where  the  haul  is  shorter. 

261 


262     California,  Eomantic  and  Beautiful 

The  assets  of  Los  Angeles  are  climate,  scenery,  re- 
markably close  proximity  to  mountain,  canyon,  foothill, 
forest,  desert,  seashore  and  island,  excellent  fishing  and 
hunting,  oil  and  hydro-electricity  for  cheap  fuel,  profit- 
able agricultural  and  horticultural  crops,  with  mining 
and  cattle-raising  not  far  in  the  background.  It  aston- 
ished more  people  than  a  few  to  learn  that  in  19 14  the 
richest  agricultural  county  in  the  United  States  was  Los 
Angeles.  Some  of  its  citrus,  walnut,  pear,  apricot, 
almond,  olive  and  truck  farm  lands  yield  heavy  interest 
on  a  higher  price  per  acre  than  can  be  found  perhaps 
elsewhere  in  the  world.  It  is  nothing  unusual  for  men 
to  make  ten,  twelve  and  fifteen  per  cent,  net,  on  a  pur- 
chase price  actually  paid  of  two,  three  and  even  four 
thousand  dollars  per  acre.  Climate,  irrigation  and  ready 
markets  explain  this. 

But  without  question  the  chief  attraction  of  Los  An- 
geles is  its  climate.  Home  seekers  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  have  congregated  here.  The  United  States 
has  a  population  of  a  hundred  million,  some  of  whom 
are  growing  older  and  richer  every  year.  Thousands  of 
these  have  lived  all  their  lives  where  the  battle  of  life 
has  been  strenuous  and  climatic  conditions  arduous  — 
hot  and  oppressive  in  summer,  fiercely  cold  and  piercing 
in  winter.  With  money  in  the  bank  or  invested  where 
it  brings  sure  returns,  why  should  these  people  longer 
remain  to  battle  with  unkind  Nature,  when  in  California 
she  was  invariably  in  gentler  and  more  attractive  mood? 
Hence  the  wealthy,  the  growing  old,  and  those  whose 
health  was  precarious  have  flocked  to  the  land  of  the 
sun-down  sea,  and,  as  they  have  seen  opportunity  for 
investment,  have  poured  out  of  their  treasure  lavishly, 
knowing,  with  keen  insight  trained  by  years  of  pinching 
and  saving,  that  it  would  return  many-fold  in  an  in- 


In  and  Around  Los  Angeles  263 

credibly  short  space  of  time.  As  a  result,  therefore,  Los 
Angeles  is  peculiarly  a  non-Californian  city,  as  far  as 
the  spirit  and  genius  of  its  people  are  concerned.  It  is 
a  conglomeration  of  middle-westerners  largely,  Illinois, 
Iowa,  Ohio,  Nebraska,  Indiana,  having  sent  large  con- 
tingents, with  sprinklings  from  the  New  England,  South- 
ern and  Northern  States. 

Los  Angeles,  unlike  San  Diego,  has  had  no  one  man 
to  whom  it  has  owed  much  of  its  remarkable  develop- 
ment, although  in  its  street  railways  three  or  four  men 
deserve  especial  attention.  Its  first  rise  above  the  ordi- 
nary horse-cars  of  the  early  days  was  when  the  father 
of  Burton  Holmes,  the  distinguished  lecturer,  came  from 
Chicago  and  installed  a  cable-railway  system.  A  few 
years  later,  in  the  late  eighties,  Moses  H.  Sherman  and 
Eli  P.  Clark  came  from  Arizona,  secured  franchises  and 
began  the  putting  in  of  electric  railways  in  the  city  and 
stretching  out  to  the  beaches  and  to  the  mountains  at 
Pasadena.  Then  Professor  T.  S.  C.  Lowe  constructed 
his  unique  incline  railway  to  Echo  Mountain,  and  be- 
came a  potent  influence  in  the  advertising  of  Southern 
California's  attractions.  Then  one  day  came  Henry  E. 
Huntington  and  Charles  Crocker,  both  important  men 
in  the  management  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Railway. 
Standing  on  Echo  Mountain,  overlooking  the  gloriously 
beautiful  plain  that  reached  from  its  foot  to  the  Pacific, 
thirty  miles  away,  one  of  the  mountain  enthusiasts  burst 
forth  into  a  prophecy  that,  ere  many  years  were  passed, 
this  vast  plain  would  become  the  scene  of  beautiful  homes 
from  the  mountains  to  the  sea,  and,  to  link  them  to- 
gether and  render  transportation  and  commerce  easy, 
lines  of  electric  railway  would  radiate  from  Los  Angeles 
in  every  direction. 

Though  trained  by  long  experience  in   railroad  con- 


264     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

struction  and  management  to  see  things  from  a  large 
and  prophetic  standpoint,  Mr.  Huntington  was  staggered 
with  this  tremendous  concept,  and  instantly  replied : 
"  Great  scheme !  Wonderful  plan !  But  what  would 
you  imagine  would  be  the  initial  cost  of  such  a  railway?  " 

The  enthusiast  confessed  he  knew  little  of  railways 
but  dared  the  "  guess  "  that  it  would  not  be  less  than 
five  millions  to  start  with,  when  Mr.  Huntington  re- 
sponded :  "  A  lot  of  money,  young  man,  a  lot  of  money." 

"  Yes,"  was  the  enthusiast's  undaunted  prophecy,  "  it 
is  a  lot  of  money,  but  the  time  will  come  when  the  money 
will  be  found  and  the  man  that  knows  how  to  spend  it." 

Some  fifteen  years  later  the  enthusiast  was  dining 
with  Mr.  Huntington  at  his  New  York  club,  and  this 
conversation  was  recalled,  when  the  financier  remarked: 
"  I  little  thought  at  the  time  I  was  to  be  the  man,  and 
that  instead  of  five  millions  the  first  shot  out  of  the  locker 
would  be  fifteen  millions.  And  since  then  the  work  has 
so  enlarged  that  we  have  multiplied  the  original  fifteen 
millions  five  times,  and  the  end  is  not  yet." 

Here  is  the  secret  of  the  later  "  boom  "  of  Los  Angeles 
and  all  the  country  round  about.  With  swift  electric 
transportation  at  reasonable  rates  provided,  the  country 
towns  sprang  into  a  new  life  as  remarkable  as  that  shown 
years  before  by  Los  Angeles,  and  the  very  audacity  of 
the  large  faith  of  the  railway  builder,  though  it  at  first 
staggered  the  little-minded  investor,  shortly  hypnotized 
him  and  made  him  frantic  "  to  get  in  on  the  ground 
floor."  Hence  it  will  be  apparent  that  it  has  not  required 
any  keen  intelligence  to  buy  building  sites  in  the  heart 
of  cities  and  towns,  or  ranches  in  the  country  and  then 
sit  still  "while  outsiders  came  in  and  purchased  them  at 
a  substantial  advance.  Fortunately  many  —  most,  in- 
deed —  of  the  purchasers  were  workers  and  immediately 


ALMONDS. 


In  and  Around  Los  Angeles 2G5 

began  to  build  on  their  lots,  or  to  develop  their  ranches. 
The  whilom  cattle  counties  became  the  agricultural  and 
horticultural  wonder  of  the  world.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  tons  of  fruits,  green  and  dried,  were  shipped 
East,  North,  Middle  West  and  South,  and  California's 
oranges,  walnuts,  lemons,  grapefruit,  figs,  almonds, 
peaches  and  apricots  went  forth  as  additional  voices 
to  further  herald  her  fame. 

When  settlers  from  the  East  returned  to  their  old 
homes  and  began  to  tell  of  what  the  new  land  had  grown 
to  mean  to  them,  their  old-time  friends  and  associates 
heard  them  with  wonderment,  shading  into  pity  and 
finally  open  remonstrance.  For  that  is  one  of  the  ro- 
mances of  California,  that  its  wonders  are  so  great,  the 
State  so  vast,  the  glories  and  beauties  so  transcendent 
tliat  he  who  tries  to  tell  of  them  comes  so  far  short  of 
the  truth  that  he  recognizes  his  own  inability  to  present 
things  in  the  light  of  the  glory  in  which  he  sees  them, 
while,  strange  to  say,  to  his  unknowing  hearers,  his  vain 
Teachings  for  the  truth  are  accounted  wild  and  foolish 
fantasies,  or  wilful  and  deliberate  exaggerations  that 
courtesy  alone  keeps  them  from  designating  by  the 
"  shorter  and  ugher  "  word. 

Even  such  a  careful  and  watchful  man  over  his  speech 
as  the  Right  Reverend  Bishop  Conaty,  of  the  diocese  of 
Los  Angeles  and  Monterey,  openly  confessed  that  when 
he  went  back  to  his  old  parish  in  the  East,  while  he  was 
struggling  to  reach  up  to  the  majesty  and  grandeur  of 
the  truths  of  California  as  he  knew  them,  but  realizing 
that  he  was  lamentably  failing,  his  hearers  were  shaking 
their  heads  and  thinking  within  themselves :  Ah,  what 
has  come  over  our  dear  former  pastor?  With  us  he 
Avas  the  soul  of  honour  and  truth  personified,  but  now, 
alas !  alas !   and  alas ! 


266     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

If  one  were  to  tell  of  the  increase  in  land  values  in 
Los  Angeles  in  the  past  thirty  years  he  could  scarce 
expect  to  be  believed  —  they  have  gone  up  so  astonish- 
ingly. And  the  remarkable  thing  is  that  no  one  could 
ever  claim  for  Los  Angeles  that  it  had  a  picturesque 
location,  —  in  itself,  —  or  that  it  promised  to  be  a  great 
commercial  centre,  or  that  it  would  ever  be  a  manufac- 
turing city,  or  that  it  had  a  profitable  contributory  back 
country.  The  matter  of  location,  of  course,  no  one 
could  change,  but  all  the  three  later  contentions  against 
its  future  growth  have  proven  themselves  absurd  in  the 
light  of  actual  events.  It  is  a  great  commercial  centre, 
distributing  its  goods  of  every  nature  into  the  interior 
towns,  reaching  through  Arizona  and  Nevada  into  New 
Mexico,  Texas  and  even  beyond.  It  is  a  great  manu- 
facturing city,  having  established  many  profitable  plants, 
whose  number  is  being  added  to  all  the  time;  and  as 
far  as  its  back  country  is  concerned.  I  have  already 
shown  it  is  the  richest  in  the  zvorld. 
\  Is  it  to  be  wondered  then,  that  the  city  has  grown 
beyond  the  wildest  dreams  of  the  most  visionary;  and 
that  in  domestic  architecture  it  has  evolved  several  fea- 
tures that  are  characteristic  of  the  soil,  climate  and  scenic 
surroundings,  and  therefore  distinctive.  To  merely  ride 
in  a  fast  automobile  through  the  residence  sections  would 
require  several  days.  In  the  business  streets  the  sky- 
scraper is  in  evidence  on  every  hand,  and  where  wild 
pasture,  alfalfa  fields,  and  orange  orchards  and  vine- 
yards existed  twenty  —  aye,  even  ten  —  years  ago,  are 
found  busy  streets  with  all  the  alert  activities  of  a  busy 
city. 

The  constant  movement  of  the  city's  centre  has  been 
an  interesting  feature  to  observe.  Thirty  years  ago  the 
old  plaza,  opposite  the  mission  chapel,  was  the  city's  cen- 


In  and  Around  Los  Angeles  267 

tre,  though  the  predominating  population  was  north  of 
it.  Ten  years  later  First  Street  might  be  regarded  as 
the  civic  centre.  Slowly  the  balance  moved  westward 
in  spite  of  the  powerful  efforts  made  to  counteract  it, 
until  to-day  Seventh  Street,  which  thirty  years  ago  was 
the  southern  outskirts,  is  now  the  acknowledged  busi- 
ness centre  of  the  city. 

The  speedy  electric  car  has  had  much  to  do  with 
bringing  about  this  result.  New  residence  sections  were 
opened  up  in  the  far-away  fields,  and  before  one  had 
got  used  to  the  name,  every  lot  was  sold,  the  streets  were 
all  graded  and  paved,  houses  built  and  the  neighbour- 
hood fully  settled  down,  and  a  division  further  out  being 
graded,  divided  and  sold.  Colegrove,  Hollywood  and 
Sherman  were  made  accessible  by  the  Sherman  and  Clark 
electric  line  to  Santa  Monica.  Now  they  are  incorpo- 
rated within  the  city  and  are  populous  suburbs,  with  mag- 
nificent residences,  great  schools,  churches,  and  libraries. 

Historically  Los  Angeles  is  one  of  the  oldest  cities 
of  the  Coast.  Founded  in  1781  by  the  Spaniards  as  a 
colony  adjacent  to  the  Mission  of  San  Gabriel,  it  pot- 
tered along  for  about  a  century,  passing  through  the 
various  vicissitudes  consequent  upon  the  severance  of 
Mexico  from  Spain,  internal  dissensions  as  to  governor- 
ship, the  secularization  of  the  Missions,  the  coming  of 
Fremont,  and  its  final  initiation  into  the  brotherhood  of 
American  cities.  San  Francisco  always  regarded  it,  not 
as  a  brother,  but  a  weak  sister,  and  he  was  very  rude 
in  his  remarks  about  her.  But,  somehow,  in  the  early 
eighties  people  from  the  East  began  to  discern  her  grow- 
ing and  budding  charms  and  the  "  Boom  "  set  in.  Fren- 
zied and  irresponsible  though  that  epoch  was,  it  served 
to  give  Los  Angeles  a  name  throughout  the  world. 
Hence,  when  in  1885,  the  Santa  Fe  drove  its  last  spike 


268     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

in  the  connecting  rail  with  the  East,  and  began  to  offer 
special  rates,  and  a  great  passenger  traffic  war  ensued, 
there  came  a  sudden  flood  of  people  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
that  for  ever  settled  the  question  as  to  the  power  of  its 
charms.  Whatever  may  be  the  personal  opinion  of  a 
few,  there  is  no  denying  that  to  the  great  mass  of  the 
reading  people  of  the  civilized  world  the  mere  name, 
California,  spells  attraction,  romance,  and  hope.  Hope 
that,  some  day,  they  may  either  visit  it,  or,  more  desira- 
ble, move  to  it  for  life. 

From  this  epoch  the  real,  swinging  uplift  of  Los  An- 
geles and  Southern  California  really  begins.  The  fed- 
eral census  of  1900  showed  the  population  to  be  102,479, 
and  19 10  gave  the  figures  as  319,198,  a  growth  of  one 
thousand  per  cent,  in  twenty  years. 

Speedily  following  the  stirring  epoch  known  as  the 
"  Boom  "  came  the  birth  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce. 
It  was  fortunate  in  its  early  history  and  did  things  that 
gained  it  the  confidence  of  the  citizens.  It  began  a  sys- 
tematic campaign  of  advertising  that  I  believe  has  never 
been  equalled  in  modern  times.  The  world  soon  knew 
definitely,  through  their  literature,  exhibits,  lectures,  pho- 
tographs, etc.,  what  Los  Angeles  and  Southern  Califor- 
nia had  to  offer  in  addition  to  mere  scenery  and  climate. 
The  "  back  country  "  was  being  developed.  Water  was 
being  found  and  brought  to  the  surface  for  irrigation. 
Dams  were  being  constructed  and  great  reservoirs 
formed  in  the  mountains  for  supplying  the  citrus  and 
other  orchards  with  the  needed  fluid.  The  Chamber  of 
Commerce  materially  aided  the  citrus  fruit  industry, 
which  soon  became  the  chief  basis  of  the  wealth  and 
prosperity  of  the  whole  southern  section. 

Then  came  the  fight  for  the  free  harbour  of  Los  An- 
geles.    Few  of  those  who  later  came  upon  the  scene  can 


In  and  Around  Los  Angeles  2G9 

form  any  idea  of  the  fierce  stubbornness  of  the  contest. 
It  must  be  understood  that  the  coast  near  Los  Angeles 
has  no  natural  harbour.  There  is  none  between  San 
Diego  and  San  Francisco,  a  distance  of  six  hundred 
miles.  There  are  several  excellent  roadsteads,  but  it 
would  require  millions  of  dollars  to  convert  any  one  of 
them  into  a  real  harbour,  suitable  for  the  commercial  use 
of  great  ocean  liners  and  freight  vessels,  and  as  a  haven 
for  smaller  vessels  in  time  of  storm.  There  were  such 
roadsteads  at  San  Pedro  and  also  at  Santa  Monica. 
Collis  P.  Huntington,  president  of  the  Southern  Pacific 
Railway,  wanted  the  government  appropriation  for 
Santa  Monica;  the  people  of  Los  Angeles  preferred  San 
Pedro.  So  confident  was  Mr.  Huntington  of  ultimate 
success  that  he  extended  the  railway  three  miles  from 
Santa  Monica,  built  a  wharf  at  his  chosen  site,  which 
he  called  Port  Los  Angeles,  at  an  expense  of  over  a 
million  dollars.  The  chairman  of  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate Committee  on  Commerce,  which  passes  on  all  har- 
bour appropriations,  was  Senator  W.  P.  Frye  of  Maine. 
In  spite  of  the  reports,  renewed  again  and  again,  of  the 
government's  own  engineers,  in  favour  of  San  Pedro 
as  against  Port  Los  Angeles,  Senator  Frye  fought  any 
appropriation  being  made  for  the  former  place.  It  was 
a  long  drawn  out  fight,  and  lasted  seven  years.  Then 
the  people,  largely  by  the  aid  of  Senator  Stephen  M. 
White,  whom  Los  Angeles  had  succeeded  in  having 
elected  as  United  States  Senator  from  California,  won. 
His  statue  —  and  it  is  a  rarely  excellent  one  —  stands  in 
front  of  the  Court  House  on  North  Broadway. 

In  due  time  Los  x\ngeles  decided  that  the  city  must  be 
expanded  so  as  to  actually  reach  the  coast,  so  an  annexa- 
tion act  was  passed  which  eventuated  in  the  creation  of 
a  "  pan-handle  "  reaching  to  and  including  San  Pedro. 


270     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

which  is  now  a  portion  of  the  corporation  of  Los  An- 
geles. 

The  harbour,  therefore,  of  San  Pedro,  is  officially  and 
legally  the  harbour  of  Los  Angeles.  It  is  inappropriate 
to  give  too  many  facts  and  figures  here,  but  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  upwards  of  five  or  six  millions  of  dollars 
have  been  spent  by  the  national  government  and  the  city 
of  Los  Angeles  in  building  the  great  protecting  sea  wall, 
deepening  the  entrance  to  forty-eight  and  fifty-two  feet, 
deepening  the  inner  harbour  and  building  wharves  and 
general  conveniences  for  the  rapid,  cheap  and  easy  han- 
dling of  passengers  and  freight. 

The  harbour  of  Los  Angeles  being  largely  a  "  made  " 
harbour,  it  can  well  be  understood  that  both  San  Fran- 
cisco and  San  Diego  poke  considerable  fun  at  its  preten- 
sions, and  very  funny  things  sometimes  appear  which  add 
to  the  hilarity  of  nations.  Yet  it  cannot  be  questioned 
that  the  harbour  is  a  great  and  growing  asset  to  the  city 
and  will  be  a  great  factor  in  its  future  development. 

Los  Angeles  is  a  unique  city,  as  a  little  consideration 
will  demonstrate.  Her  business  capacities  have  been 
cursorily  referred  to,  but  enough  to  show  that  she  is 
capable  of  doing  large  things,  yet,  side  by  side  with  the 
harbour,  the  oil  wells,  the  manufacturing  plants,  the  cul- 
tivation of  vegetable  gardens  and  fruit  ranches,  stands 
her  tourist  trade.  This  demands  the  usual  catchy  stores 
for  souvenirs.  Tourists,  especially  Americans,  are  "  sou- 
venir crazy,"  and  Los  Angeles  has  no  objection.  Hence 
she  has  more  stores  for  such  objects  than  Niagara  Falls 
fifty  times  over,  —  shell  jewelry,  miniature  boxes  of 
tiny  oranges,  orange-wood  and  lemon-wood  placques, 
ostrich  feathers  and  eggs,  alligator  skin  bags,  Navaho 
blankets,  Mexican  zarapes,  Indian  baskets,  bows  and 
arrows,  bowls,  ollas  and  other  pottery,  idols,  moccasins, 


In  and  Around  Los  Angeles  271 

drums,  mineral  specimens,  spoons  (of  course),  burnt 
leather,  carved  leather,  stamped  leather,  tiny  Indian  and 
Mexican  figures  and  a  thousand  and  a  half  other  things 
painted,  stamped,  burnt,  scratched,  engraved  or  smeared : 
"  Souvenir  of  Los  Angeles." 

And  as  a  necessary  corollary  there  are  the  ostrich- 
farm,  where  one  can  ride  a  swift  and  long-stepping  os- 
trich, or  at  least  be  photographed  astraddle  of  one;  an 
alligator  farm,  where  one  thousand  birds,  —  no,  alliga- 
tors are  not  birds,  beasts,  —  no,  that  will  never  do,  fishes, 

—  worse  yet,  —  now  we  have  it,  reptiles,  — ,  so  the  guide 
informs  us,  —  from  the  tiny  creatures  just  hatched  to 
Monarch,  who  is  five  hundred  years  old,  are  shown  to  us. 

But  attractive  with  all  the  strange  allurement  and 
attraction  of  behind-the-scenes  in  a  theatre  are  the  places 
where  "  movies ''  are  made.  Climate,  sunshine  and 
variety  of  scenery  close  at  hand  are  great  factors  in 
this  modern  industry  and  several  of  the  largest  "  movie  " 
making  firms  in  the  country  have  monster  plants  here, 

—  regular  cities  within  their  own  walls,  where  railway 
accidents,  war  scenes,  domestic  woes  and  blisses,  Cur- 
fezv  shall  not  ring  to-night  and  The  Last  Days  of  Pom- 
peii are  reproduced  with  all  that  verve,  spontaneity  and 
naturalness  that  one  looks  for,  and  finds,  only  in  a  mov- 
ing-picture show. 

The  chief  beauty  of  Los  Angeles  is  found  in  its  parks, 
its  suburbs  and  in  the  glorious  vistas  of  snow-crowned 
mountain  peaks,  or  deep  purple  ranges  that  rise  up  sud- 
denly at  the  end  of  some  street  vista.  One  is  reminded 
of  a  sign  that  Joaquin  Miller  used  to  have  on  his  gate- 
post at  The  Hights :  "  There  is  nothing  to  see  up  here 
except  down  yonder."  There  is  nothing  particularly 
beautiful  in  rows  of  business  blocks,  though,  of  course, 
in  the  residence  sections  there  are  charming  houses,  some 


272     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

of  attractive,  others  of  bizarre,  architecture,  with  a 
wealth  of  flowers  that  appeals  to  all.  But  in  Elysian 
Park,  and  especially  Griffith  Park,  there  are  driveways, 
bridle  paths  and  outlook  points  that  are  beautiful  beyond 
compare.  Save  for  Fairmount  Park,  in  Philadelphia, 
Griffith  Park  has  the  largest  area  of  any  park  in  Amer- 
ica, and  much  of  it  is  allowed  to  remain  in  its  native 
wildness,  with  merely  enough  roadways  made  through 
it  to  render  it  accessible.  An  open-air  California  theatre 
—  an  improvement  on  the  Greek,  in  that  electric  lights 
and  other  modern  conveniences  accompany  all  that  the 
Greeks  had  — ■  is  being  built  which  will  seat  twenty  thou- 
sand people,  and  with  a  possibility  of  enlargement  to 
three  times  the  size  should  it  ever  be  required.  The 
park  w^as  a  gift  to  the  city  by  Griffith  G.  Griffiths,  who 
many  years  ago  purchased  it  with  this  thought  in  view. 

It  is  her  roads  and  electric-car  system  that  enable  Los 
Angeles  to  pose  as  beautiful.  And  surely  her  robes,  even 
to  the  hem  of  her  garment,  are  glorious.  She  herself  — 
well !  she's  no  prettier  than  many  a  bride,  but  there  is 
no  world-famed  beauty  that  can  truthfully  brag  of  finer 
embroideries,  skirts  and  diamond-buckles  on  her  shoes, 
gorgeous  head-dresses,  richer  finger-rings  and  varied 
nicknacks  than  can  Los  Angeles. 

In  thirty-five  minutes,  see  her  bejewelled  ocean  cinc- 
ture, a  galaxy  of  beach-towns  that  have  the  rich  blue 
of  the  Pacific  as  an  allurement  every  day  in  the  year, 
and  w^here  surf  bathing  is  indulged  in  every  day,  almost 
without  exception.  Santa  Monica,  Ocean  Park,  Venice, 
Playa  del  Rey,  Manhattan,  Hermosa,  Redondo,  Cliffton- 
by-the-Sea,  San  Pedro,  Long  Beach,  Alamitos,  Hunting- 
ton Beach,  Balboa,  and  Newport  are  all  reached  directly, 
with  express  electric  cars  direct  from  Los  Angeles. 

Then,  in  the  other  direction  stand  the  mountains,  with 


MT.    LOWE    RAILWAY. 


In  and  Around  Los  Angeles  273 

their  Mt.  Lowe  Railway,  Carnegie  Observatory,  and  the 
cool  and  delicious  canyons,  where  running  brooks  sing 
to  sunshine-kissed  trees,  and  gigantic  mountain  sides  and 
cliffs  keep  putting  on  ever-changing  garments  of  colour 
and  tone  for  the  delectation  of  the  elect. 

And  between  mountains  and  sea  are  miles  and  miles, 
on  either  hand,  of  orange  o-rchards,  lemon  groves,  ave- 
nues of  palms,  great  mesas  dotted  over  with  poppies, 
lupines  and  mustard,  the  groves  of  stately  eucalyptus, 
and  all  where  the  odours  of  a  million  times  a  million 
flowers  and  blossoms  unite  with  the  salty  tang  of  the 
sea  air  and  the  pine  and  balsam  laden  breezes  from  the 
mountains. 

It  is  soothing,  alluring,  stimulating,  restful,  —  accord- 
ing to  temperament,  —  there  is  no  question,  or  people 
would  not  return  to  it  year  after  year  from  East,  Middle 
West,  North  and  South  as  they  do. 

Mount  Lo\ve  is  one  of  the  "  show^s  "  of  Los  Angeles. 
It  was  named  after  Professor  T.  S.  C.  Lowe,  who  first 
came  into  public  prominence  as  the  organizer  of  the 
United  States  Aeronautic  Service  during  the  Civil  War. 
He  next  invented  the  artificial  ice  machine,  then  "  water 
gas,"  which  revolutionized  the  light  and  fuel  problem 
of  the  country,  and  finally  came  to  Pasadena,  built  the 
electric  railway  into  Rubio  Canyon,  designed  and 
equipped  the  Great  Cable  Incline  to  Echo  Mountain,  and 
the  electric  road  to  Alpine  Tavern.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands have  thus  been  enabled  to  scale  the  Sierra  Madre 
Range  and  enjoy  the  glorious  outlook  over  range  after 
range  of  mountains,  foothills,  fertile  valley,  seashore, 
ocean  and  islands.  The  Lowe  Observatory  was  also 
built,  for  popular  instruction  and  enjoyment,  as  well  as 
scientific  research,  on  Echo  Mountain,  and  Dr.  Lewis 
Swift,  the  great  comet  and  nebulse  finder,  brought  to 


274     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

preside  over  it.     At  his  death   Edgar  Larkin  was  ap- 
pointed astronomer,  which  post  he  still  occupies. 

On  a  neighbouring  peak  of  the  same  range,  Mt.  Wil- 
son, Andrew  Carnegie  has  established  the  Carnegie  Ob- 
servatory. This  is  equipped,  and  in  process  of  equip- 
ment, with  the' finest  astronomical  instruments  known  to 
modern  science.  It  is  under  the  personal  supervision 
and  governance  of  Professor  George  C.  Hale,  with  a 
band  of  competent  assistants,  and  in  the  pure  air  of  this 
region  great  results  are  confidently  expected  to  the  en- 
largement of  astronomical  knowledge. 
\  Of  the  towns  adjacent  to  Los  Angeles  little  can  be  said, 
but  the  people  of  Pasadena  naturally  feel  that  pages,  or 
whole  volumes,  should  be  written  about  their  beautiful 
city.  So  of  South  Pasadena,  Pomona,  Glendale,  Whit- 
tier,  San  Fernando  and  many  others.  And,  truly,  each 
is  worthy  extended  notice,  but  all  one  can  say  is  that 
God  has  done  much  to  make  possible  the  attractions  of 
them  all,  and  that  in  their  variety  man  finds  his  choice. 
Each  is  different,  yet  all  are  beautiful,  and  it  is  a 
"  toss-up  "  when  a  party  starts  out  for  a  long  day's  ride 
which  will  charm  the  most. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

THE    SOUTHWESTERN    CORNER    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

What  pictures  flood  the  imagination  as  one  reads  the 
title  of  this  chapter :  The  Southwestern  Corner  of  the 
United  States  —  the  beginning  point  of  California ;  the 
first  port  of  call  on  United  States  soil  for  the  Panama 
Canal;  vessels  from  every  part  of  the  world;  Uncle 
Sam's  battle-ships,  cruisers,  torpedo  boats  and  destroy- 
ers; boys'  and  girls'  rowing-crews  on  the  bay;  stirring 
polo  games ;  following  the  hounds ;  daring  feats  with 
aeroplanes ;  startling  dives  from  the  heavens  with  hydro- 
planes—  half  a  dozen,  a  dozen  giant  dragon-fly-like 
creatures  buzzing  in  the  high  heavens,  soaring  into  the 
very  eye  of  the  sun,  — ■  yachting  in  the  ba}''  and  in  the 
outer  ocean ;  Japanese  gardens ;  ostrich  farm ;  perpet- 
ual flowers;  Coronado  Tent-City;  the  long  sandy jspit 
connecting  Coronado  with  the  main  land,  the  quiet 
waters  of  the  bay  on  one  side  and  the  roaring,  dashing 
surf  on  the  other;  the  majestic,  flower-embowered  hotel 
on  the  Coronado  strand ;  gorgeous  sunrises  and  sunsets, 
illuminated  desert  mountains,  foot-hills,  valleys,  islands 
and  ocean;  the  sturdy  promontor}'  of  Point  Loma,  with 
its  lighthouse,  "  Bennington  "  monument,  wireless  tele- 
graph apparatus,  and  the  glistening  dome  of  the  Aryan 
Temple  of  the  Theosophical  Brotherhood,  a  blaze  of 
dazzling  splendour  in  the  sunshine;  avenues  of  palms; 
groves  of  eucalyptus,  orange,  lemon  and  olive;  and  at 
night-time  the  blaze  of  the  thousands  of  electric  lights 

275 


276     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

of  San  Diego,  South  San  Diego,  National  City,  Imperial 
Beach,  Coronado  and  Point  Loma  making  earthly  con- 
stellations rivalling  in  splendour,  glory  and  fantastic 
form  those  that  have  attracted  the  eyes  of  men  to  the 
heavens  since  history  began  —  these,  and  a  score,  a  hun- 
dred, five  hundred,  numberless  pictures  of  beauty  and 
glory  pour  forth  from  the  chambers  of  memory,  evoked 
])y  the  mere  sound  of  the  name  that  heads  this  chapter. 

San  Diego  is  one  of  the  most  marvellous  of  all  the 
marvel  cities  of  the  marvellous  West.  When  its  citizens 
began  to  agitate  in  1909-10  for  a  great  exposition  to 
celebrate  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  in  19 15,  it 
boasted  a  population  of  some  thirty  to  thirty-five  thou- 
sand people.  For  the  half  century  of  its  life  it  'had  hung 
on  to  the  skirts  of  things,  the  butt  of  the  jests,  the  jokes, 
and,  worse  than  all,  now  and  again  the  pity  of  Los 
Angeles,  San  Francisco,  Oakland,  Sacramento  and  the 
larger  towns  of  the  State.  When  the  Southern  Pacific 
Sunset  Route  was  built  its  officials  ignored  San  Diego 
and  9wer\'ed  away  from  it  to  cut  obliquely  across  the 
Colorado  Desert  to  Los  Angeles.  Later  the  Santa  Fe 
generously  took  pity  on  it  and  built  a  branch  line  from 
Los  Angeles,  Pacific  steamers  called  for  passengers  and 
freight,  but  everybody  knew  it  ^\^as  isolated ;  and  San 
Diegans  felt  it.  But  the  struggle  for  the  Panama- 
California  Exposition  has  brought  new  life  to  the  city 
land  to-day  its  population  numbers  over  one  hundred 
thousand,  and  it  is  rapidly  growing. 

And  why  should  it  not  grow?  To  those  who  seek 
uniformity  of  climate,  winter  and  summer  alike;  that 
is,  a  climate  that  scarce  knows  such  terms  as  winter  and 
summer,  the  San  Diego  region  naturally  appeals.  For 
the  records  show  that  it  is  the  most  self-poised  climatic 
centre   the   world   knows.      Its    thermostatic   pendulum 


Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United  States   277 

swings  with  a  less  arc  than  any  known  region  in  the 
world,  notwithstanding  the  boasting  of  the  far-famed 
Riviera,  the  much  lauded  North  of  Africa,  and  all  the 
other  chosen  localities. 

Then,  too,  another  preeminent  gift  of  God  is  its  har- 
bour; a  naturally  sheltered  and  completely  land-locked 
bay,  with  reasonably  easy  and  secure  access,  twenty-two 
miles  long  and  capable  of  sheltering  the  navies  of  the 
world.  It  is  a  placid  sheet  of  water,  encompassed  by 
gently  rolling  hills  on  the  east  and  a  lofty  headland  on 
the  west  —  Point  Loma,  once  undoubtedly  an  island, 
which  seems  to  have  arisen  from  the  sea  at  the  behest 
of  a  benign  Creator,  to  protect  the  vessels  that  seek  har- 
bour beyond. 

Completely  land-locked,  with  a  depth  af  water  over 
the  bar  of  thirty-one  feet  at  low  tide,  with  an  inner 
channel  ranging  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand 
feet  in  width,  and  from  thirty-five  to  seventy  feet  in 
depth  at  low  water,  and  a  normal  tide  of  approximately 
five  feet,  here  was  generous  sea-room  for  the  maneu- 
vering of  vessels  to  any  reasonable  extent.  Federal 
appropriations,  however,  have  been  made  to  dredge  the 
bar  to  thirty-five  feet. 

Rising  from  the  bay  shore  to  the  north  and  east  the 
land  ascends  in  semi-  or  irregular  amphitheatre  form, 
capable  of  being  terraced,  and  affording  as  perfect  a  site 
for  a  city  as  can  be  found  in  the  world.  Diversified  and 
picturesque,  seamed  here  and  there  with  ravines,  it  only 
needed  man  to  come  to  people  its  slopes  and  construct 
the  city  for  which  it  was  so  remarkably  well  adapted. 

Accordingly  in  1867,  after  one  or  two  prior  efforts 
had  been  made,  A.  E.  Horton  detennined  to  rise  to  the 
Supreme  Architect's  plans.  He  laid  out  the  city  of  to- 
day.    For  twenty-isix  cents  an  acre  he  bouglit  one  hun- 


278     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

dred  and  sixty  acres  where  the  central  part  of  the  city 
now  stands.  By  187 1-2  the  Horton  House  was  built  on 
the  site  now  occupied  by  the  U.  S.  Grant  Hotel,  the  plaza 
laid  out  and  development  well  under  way. 

Every  stranger  of  intelligence  who  came  to  the  scene 
acknowledged  that  in  the  harbour  was  a  magnificent 
asset  for  the  upbuilding  of  a  city.  Yet  in  these  modern 
days  a  harbour  alone  was  not  enough.  Railroad  connec- 
tion with  a  great  interior  country,  steamers  carrying 
precious  loads  of  passengers  and  freight  were  essential 
to  take  advantage  of  harbour  facilities,  or  the  finest  har- 
bour God  ever  made  might  remain  idle  and  useless. 
Climate  unknown  and  unused  might  be  fit  for  angels  and 
archangels,  yet  if  man  never  came  to  utilize  it  wherein 
was  the  world  benefitted  ?  Population  was  essential,  and 
transportation  facilities  for  the  easy  and  convenient 
handling  of  population  and  commerce. 

Slowly,  with  many  a  setback,  the  population  increased, 
until  in  1887,  when  the  Santa  Fe  practically  made  its 
eastern  connections  with  San  Diego  the  boom,  which  had 
already  set  in  in  Los  Angeles  and  vicinity  reached  its 
sister  city  further  south.  Now,  for  a  time,  things  moved 
with  such  -rapidity  as  to  be  bewildering.  John  Law's 
South  Sea  Bubble  scarcely  caused  more  excitement. 
Theodore  S.  Van  Dyke  has  written  a  fascinating  story 
of  the  time  entitled  Millionaires  of  a  Day  w'hich  graph- 
ically sets  forth  the  frenzied  condition  that  existed. 
Then  came  the  "flattening  out"  of  the  boom;  after 
which  San  Diego  seemed  to  settle  back  -and  quietly  wait 
for  further  dev^elopments  which  she  felt  were  sure  to 
come. 

In  this  as  in  many  other  Pacific  cities  the  faith,  te- 
nacity and  buo3'ant  hope  of  a  few  men  have  done  much 
to  make  possible  the  success  that  has  ultimately  come. 


Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United  States   279 

"  Father  "  Hortoii  was  one,  and  Elisha  S.  Babcock  an- 
other. The  fonner  has  passed  on ;  Mr.  Babcock  still 
lives,  with  unabated  vigour  still  directing  his  varied 
enterprises. 

It  is  interesting  and  instructive  to  note  Mr.  Babcock's 
relationship  with  San  Diego  and  Coronado.  In  1883  he 
first  came  to  California  and  wintered  in  this  then  em- 
bryonic city.  His  original  home  was  Evansville,  Indiana. 
A  born  hunter,  devoted  to  the  out-of-door  life,  one  can 
well  imagine  how  this  almost  virgin  land  appealed  to 
him.  The  Coronado  islands  and  peninsula,  Point  Loma, 
the  hills,  valleys  and  mountain  slopes  for  a  hundred  miles 
around,  were  solitudes,  a  hunter's  paradise,  where  one 
might  roam  undisturbed  for  weeks. 

It  did  not  take  such  a  land  long  to  conquer  him.  He 
sold  out  in  Indiana,  moved  bag  and  baggage  and  came 
to  the  land  that  had  won  his  heart.  His  active  brain  and 
body,  however,  were  compelled  to  find  work.  He  saw 
into  the  future.  Others  saw  with  him.  They  had  estab- 
lished a  national  bank;  he  helped  enlarge  its  scope.  So 
with  the  gas  and  electric  company.  He  put  new  life  into 
the  water  company  that  supplied  the  city  with  domestic 
water,  and  with  his  associates  built  the  street  car  lines, 
which,  later,  he  and  Mr.  John  D.  Spreckles  made  into 
an  up-to-date  eleotric  traction  system.  When  the  Santa 
Fe  system  decided  to  build  to  San  Diego,  it  was  Mr. 
Babcock  that  secured  the  water-front  franchises,  ground 
for  the  terminals  and  built  the  wharves,  coal  bunkers, 
etc.,  needed.  Then  he  saw  the  possibilities  in  the  line  of 
tourist  travel  and  home  development.  In  his  hunting, 
he  and  his  dogs  had  roamed  over  the  Coronado  penin- 
sula, about  eight  miles  long,  which  separates  San  Diego 
Bay  from  the  ocean.  This  peninsula  has  two  large  heads 
containing  over  a  thousand  acres  each.     He  and  three 


280     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

others  purchased  the  Spanish  grant  which  embraced  this 
land.  The  south  "  head  "  was  subdivided  and  named 
Coronado  Beach.  Lots  were  sold  to  people  all  over  the 
United  States ;  a  ferry  across  the  bay  was  established, 
and  a  steam  railway  built  around  the  bay  connecting  the 
new  city  with  San  Diego.  He  also  sunk  wells  near  the 
head  of  the  bay  and  piped  the  water  to  Coronado.  In 
time  the  city  grew,  until  now  it  is  one  of  the  noted  resorts 
of  the  Pacific  coast. 

During  this  period  of  activity  he  planned  and  executed 
the  building  of  Hotel  del  Coronado.  Even  the  people  of 
San  Diego  said  he  was  crazy;  and  those  of  Los  Angeles 
and  San  Francisco  merely  shrugged  their  shoulders  in 
sneering  sarcasm.  The  folly,  or  insanity,  was  so  ap- 
parent. Yet  Hotel  del  Coronado  in  the  south,  and  Hotel 
del  Monte  in  the  north,  with  Hotel  Raymond  in  Pasa- 
dena between,  did  more  to  attract  the  thousands  of 
wealthy  travellers  and  home-seekers  to  California,  and 
to  satisfy  their  immediate  needs  when  they  got  there, 
while  they  were  letting  the  charm  and  glamour  of  the 
country  "  seep  into  "  their  systems,  than  all  else  com- 
bined. 

It  is  an  interesting  piece  of  history  to  recall  that  the 
only  way  sufficient  carpenters  and  mechanics  could  be 
secured  for  the  work  was  by  importation  in  "  car-load 
lots  "  from  the  East.  One  car-load  of  fifty-one  carpen- 
ters was  brought  in,  all  expenses  advanced,  and,  on  their 
arrival  in  San  Diego  they  w^ere  approached  by  an  agent 
from  Ensenada,  Mexico,  where  their  services  were 
needed,  accepted  his  offer,  and  without  a  word  of  thanks, 
or  any  offer  to  reimburse  Mr.  Babcock,  this  band  of 
"  honest  American  working-men  "  sailed  away  and  were 
never  seen  again. 

To  further  the  interests  of  the  growing  city  and  sing 


Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United  States  281 

its  praises  to  the  outside  world,  as  well  as  to  provide  its 
citizens  with  news,  he  took  over  the  daily  morning 
Union,  and  the  evening  Tribune.  Special  editions  of 
these,  fully  illustrated  with  finely  executed  engravings  of 
San  Diego  and  Hotel  del  Coronado  were  scattered 
broadcast  throughout  the  East,  and  thus  became  useful 
heralds  of  the  country's  chamis. 

Then  the  people  of  California's  interior  valley  and 
mountain  regions  began  to  clamour  for  a  more  mod- 
est stopping  place  by  the  sea  and  bay,  where  yet  they 
would  enjoy  all  the  Nature  advantages  possessed  by 
those  who  dwelt  in  the  great  and  magnificent  Hotel  del 
Coronado.  Accordingly  Mr.  Babcock  planned  the  Coro- 
nado Tent  City,  the  most  unique  and  well-favoured 
camp  for  seaside  dwellers  in  the  world.  The  peninsula 
just  below  the  hotel  is  a  mere  narrow  sand  spit,  with 
ocean  on  one  side  and  bay  on  the  other,  not  more  than 
a  stone's  throw  apart.  Thousands  of  car-loads  of  sand 
and  dirt  were  hauled  from  the  mainland  to  make  a  solid 
foundation  for  the  city  of  tents  and  its  buildings.  Then 
a  fiirst-class  brass  band  must  be  organized  to  help  enter- 
tain the  vast  crowds  that  came  to  enjoy  this  rare  expe- 
rience. Swimmers  would  play  awhile  in  the  breakers  and 
in  three  minutes  were  on  the  other  side  enjoying  the 
placid  waters  of  the  Bay. 

Work  like  this,  however,  was  but  play  to  Mr.  Bab- 
cock. He  had  larger  ideas  at  work  in  his  active  brain. 
Whenever  office  cares  began  to  press  too  hard  he  called 
for  his  horse  and  dogs,  and  off  he  went  over  all  the  wild 
land,  into  the  canyons,  ravines,  gorges,  up  the  mountain 
slopes,  from  the  Santa  Ana  River  on  the  north,  into 
Lower  California  (Mexico)  on  the  south,  and  east  as 
far  as  the  Colorado  River.  Hunting  every  one  called 
it,  and  so  it  was.     But  there  was  not  only  the  sport  of 


282     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


shooting  game.  The  hunter  was  a  keen-eyed  surveyor. 
His  barometer  and  a  hand  level  were  with  him  contin- 
ually. He  was  seeking  reservoir  sites,  studying  water- 
sheds, with  an  eye  to  wrest  from  wild  Nature  a  sufficient 
and  adequate  water-supply  for  the  city  of  San  Diego  — 
as  he  saw  it  in  the  not  too  far  distant  future.  Thousands 
of  persons  yet  unborn  will  unconsciously  give  their  trib- 
ute of  thanks  and  joy  to  Mr.  Babcock,  in  the  mere  joy 
of  their  physical  existence,  for  what  he  did  on  those 
solitary  hunts.  Every  available  site  was  studied,  and  it 
is  amusing  to  those  of  us  who  know  the  facts,  that  sites 
loudly  proclaimed  as  new  and  available  discoveries  to- 
day were  weighed  in  the  balance  and  found  wanting  by 
Mr.  Babcock  twenty-five  years  ago.  The  locations  de- 
cided upon,  he  filed  upon  the  land,  incorporated  the 
Southern  California  Mountain  Water  Company,  planned 
the  system  of  water  development,  now  in  operation, 
which  linked  four  immense  reservoirs  in  one  perfect 
chain,  within  the  close  distance  of  forty-five  miles  from 
San  Diego,  and  within  the  heaviest  rainfall  belt  of  the 
county.  Old  and  inadequate  water  companies  had  to  be 
bought  out;  tangled  claims  to  land,  water-rights  and 
filings  to  be  straightened  out ;  new  sites  located  and  pur- 
chased. This  took  many  years  of  time  and  a  large  out- 
lay of  capital.  Then  actual  construction  on  two  unique 
dams  was  begun  —  the  Upper  and  Lower  Otay.  When 
the  latter  was  completed  (and  Mr.  Babcock  was  his  own 
engineer),  no  hydraulic  engineer  would  give  a  word  in 
its  favour.  It  is  thirty  feet  under  ground,  one  hundred 
and  thirty  feet  above,  over  four  hundred  feet  wide  at  the 
base,  and  twenty  feet  wide  at  the  top.  Its  capacity  is 
fourteen  billion  gallons.  It  was  started  as  a  masonry 
dam,  but  as  bed  rock  could  not  be  found  on  one  side  after 
boring  one  hundred  feet,  it  was  completed  as  a  steel-core 


Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United  States  283 

rock-fill  dam.  Burlap  and  asphalt  were  used  to  cover 
the  steel  core,  which  was  embedded  in  concrete.  It  has 
since  been  copied  in  its  main  features  by  many  eminent 
engineers.  The  other  dams  were  built  —  Barrett  par- 
tially —  and  Morena  completely,  with  the  Upper  Otay. 
The  latter  is  practically  the  first  reinforced  concrete  dam 
ever  constructed.  This  type  of  structure  was  then  un- 
born. It  bows  up  stream.  To  strengthen  it  Mr.  Bab- 
cock  used  over  two  miles  of  steel  cable,  —  discarded 
from  his  cable  railway  when  it  was  converted  into  an 
electric  railway,  —  winding  it  back  and  forth  from  side 
to  side  and  embedding  it  in  concrete.  Engineers  predicted 
it  would  not  stand.  It  is  seventy-seven  feet  in  height 
above  the  bed  of  the  stream,  fourteen  feet  wide  at  the 
base  and  four  feet  wide  at  the  top.  Its  capacity  is  680,- 
000,000  gallons,  with  .a  flow  over  its  top  of  two  or  three 
inches  deep.  It  has  never  required  repairs  and  is  to-day 
as  tight  as  when  constructed.  Who  can  estimate  what 
this  wonderful  water  system  has  meant  to  the  develop- 
ment of  San  Diego? 

Yet  even  these  achievements  do  not  end  the  list. 
After  trying  to  rest  awhile,  travelling  with  his  family, 
etc.,  Mr.  Babcock  came  back  to  San  Diego  and  erected 
the  largest  solar  salt  works  in  the  United  States.  In 
191 1  the  plant  produced  seven  thousand  tons  of  crystal- 
lized salt.  In  19 1 2  the  output  was  nine  thousand  tons, 
and  in  1913,  twenty-three  thousand  tons.  The  ultimate 
capacity  of  the  plant  as  designed  is  seventy-five  thousand 
to  ninety  thousand  tons  per  year,  and  already  this  tire- 
less, energetic  worker  has  planned  to  ship  salt  to  India, 
China  and  Japan. 

I  have  been  thus  prolix  for  two  reasons :  the  develop- 
ment of  San  Diego  and  Coronado  has  always  fascinated 
me  on  account  of  the  rich  charms  land  attractions  they 


/ 


284     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

possess,  and  Mr.  Babcock's  individual  work  has  been  so 
varied,  so  loyal,  so  persistent  that  I  felt  my  reader,  in 
going  over  the  scenes  with  me,  might  enjoy  this  personal 
recital  as  we  went  along. 

Another  man  of  later  date  to  whom  San  Diego  and 
Coronado  owe  much,  is  John  D.  Spreckles.  His  faith 
and  works  have  paralleled  those  of  Mr.  Babcock.  He 
came  to  San  Diego  about  twenty-five  years  ago,  was 
captured  by  the  climate,  built  himself  a  home  at  Coro- 
nado, "  took  hold  "  and  soon  had  a  hand  in  everything 
—  water-works,  street  railways,  Hotel  del  Coronado,  the 
ferry,  banks,  theatre,  hotel  structure,  business  blocks,  and 
yet  has  worked  in  such  a  broad,  manly  fashion  that,  in 
the  main,  he  has  won  and  retained  the  esteem  of  all  the 
citizens  of  all  classes. 

When  it  was  decided  to  make  the  roads  of  San  Diego 
County  measure  up  to  what  the  city  itself  was  aiming  for 
Mr.  Spreckles,  Mr.  Spalding  (of  sporting  goods  fame) 
and  Mr.  Scripps  of  the  Scripps  Newspaper  Syndicate, 
were  elected  or  appointed  as  a  County  Road  Commission. 
Serving  without  pay,  with  comprehensive  ideas  as  to 
what  road  building  should  be,  all  of  them  with  practical 
business  training,  they  succeeded  in  getting  bonds  voted 
for  two  millions  of  dollars  with  which  they  revolution- 
ized the  roads  of  San  Diego  inside  of  a  couple  of  years, 
and  to-day  I  say  for  them,  without  fear  of  successful 
contradiction  that,  population  and  area  considered,  there 
are  no  finer  roads  in  America  than  this  county  affords. 
There  are  over  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  well  con- 
structed automobile  boulevards,  including  the  famous 
Point  Loma  road,  with  an  additional  five  hundred  miles 
of  good  country  roads,  reaching  from  the  desert,  over 
the  mountains  to  the  sea,  affording  an  infinite  variety  of 
charming,    delightful,    restful   or   exciting   rides.      It   is 


Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United  States  285 

through  work  of  this  nature  that  Mr.  Spreckles  and  his 
associates  have  won  the  respect  and  gratitude  of  their 
fellow  citizens. 

When  Mr.  Spreckles  had  been  in  San  Diego  long 
enough  to  understand  conditions,  and  saw  what  a  mag- 
nificent empire  was  developing  in  the  Imperial  Valley  as 
a  "  back  country  "  to  San  Diego,  he  determined  to  do  his 
best  to  secure  direct  railroad  communication  over  the 
mountain,  through  Imperial,  with  the  East.  Imperial 
County  backed  him  up  with  vigour,  and  in  1907  the  San 
Diego  and  Eastern  Railway  was  launched,  the  bonds 
authorized  by  the  State  Railway  Commission  in  19 14, 
and  construction  work  is  now  rapidly  being  pushed  at 
both  ends. 

Other  public  spirited  men  saw  the  need  of  a  first-class 
hotel.  The  U.  S.  Grant  was  projected.  "  A  White 
Elephant,"  everybody  exclaimed,  except  the  few  far- 
visioned  optimists.  The  hotel  was  built,  however.  It  is 
a  magnificent  concrete  structure,  the  finest  of  its  kind  in 
the  world,  has  over  five  hundred  rooms,  half  of  them 
with  private  bath,  a  theatre  capable  of  seating  twelve 
hundred  people,  a  smaller  concert  hall,  a  salt  water  swim- 
ming plunge  and  equipnient  of  baths  equal  to  many  of 
the  famous  Eastern  watering  places. 

To  merely  furnish  such  an  hotel  in  modern  fashion 
meant  a  fortune,  yet  the  man  was  found  to  undertake  it 
in  James  H.  Holmes,  who  for  many  years  had  been  the 
popular  host  of  the  Hotel  Green,  at  Pasadena.  Inside 
of  three  months  from  its  opening  the  U.  S.  Grant  was 
turning  guests  away,  and  ever  since,  has  had  a  most 
prosperous  career. 

When  San  Diego's  pu'blic  spirited  men  determined  to 
have  an  Exposition  to  celebrate  the  opening  of  the 
Panama  Canal  scarcely  any  one  deemed  it  possible.     Yet 


286     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  very  effort  needed  to  bring  it  about  has  developed 
a  loyal  spirit  in  San  Diego  that  will  be  worth  —  as  the 
years  pass,  as  well  as  now  —  a  thousandfold  more  than 
its  cost.  The  pluck,  self-reliance,  confidence  gendered 
by  the  enterprise  has  already  resulted  in  bringing  the 
population  up  to  a  hundred  thousand,  and  this  will  be 
more  than  doubled  within  five  years. 

The  Elks  wanted  a  hall  for  their  meetings,  etc.  The 
architect  figured  it  would  cost  them  forty  thousand  dol- 
lars. They  had  four  hundred  members;  just  one  hun- 
dred dollars  each.  It  was  suggested,  and  inside  of  a 
year  the  lodge  was  meeting  in  its  own  beautiful  building. 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  city  has  brought  great  public 
improvements  in  its  wake.  The  Santa  Fe  have  built  a 
fine  new  depot,  commensurate  with  the  dignity  and  needs 
of  the  modern  city.  The  harbour  is  being  improved  in 
accordance  with  a  grant  made  by  the  State  in  191 1  of 
absolute  control  of  its  water-front.  This  is  bulkheaded, 
eleven  miles  in  extent  and  comprising  an  area  of  1460 
acres ;  a  concrete  pier  has  also  been  erected,  800  feet  long 
and  130  feet  wide,  and  great  coal-bunkers  are  being 
provided  for  sea-going  vessels. 

The  Panama-California  Exposition  was  utilized  by 
San  Diego  better  than  any  exposition  has  ever  yet  been 
utilized  by  the  city  in  which  it  was  held.  San  Diego 
rejoices  in  the  possession  of  its  own  jDlayground  named 
Balboa  Park,  of  fourteen  hundred  acres.  This  was  made 
the  site  of  the  exposition.  A  permanent  concrete  bridge, 
of  seven  arches,  one  thousand  feet  long  and  136  feet 
high,  over  Cabrillo  Canyon,  connects  the  two  divisions 
of  the  park.  Almost  on  one  end  of  this  bridge  is  the 
California  building,  of  concrete,  in  the  Spanish  colonial 
style,  rising  two  hundred  feet  above  the  foundations, 
surmounted  by  a  tiled  dome,  and  its  glorious  proportions 


Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United  States  287 

further  beautified  by  a  stately  tower  at  one  corner.  It 
is  now  used  as  a  State  institution  for  the  dissemination 
of  infonnation  about  CaHfornia  and  her  resources,  scenic 
wonders  and  other  attractions. 

As  Balboa  Park  is  only  ten  minutes  away  from  the 
heart  of  the  city,  and  yet  is  three  hundred  feet  above  sea 
level  the  dome  and  tower  of  the  California  building  may 
be  clearly  seen  a  hundred  miles  out  at  sea. 

Another  permanent  attraction  resultant  from  the  Ex- 
position is  the  wonderful  park  growths  of  trees,  shrubs 
and  flowers.  These  were  one  of  the  chief  marvels  of 
the  Exposition,  and  gave  joy  to  millions,  as  they  will 
surely  do  in  the  future. 

San  Diego's  climate  has  made  it  world-famed  and  as 
a  result  It  has  a  number  of  nearby  resorts  of  greater  or 
lesser  note.  La  Jolla  is  one  of  the  most  famous  of  these, 
with  its  wonderful  sea  caves,  its  marine  laboratory  and 
exquisite  blue  ocean.  There  is  also  a  fine  Episcopal  edu- 
cational institution  for  girls  here  known  as  the  Bishop's 
School. 

Del  Mar,  on  the  sea-coast  road  coming  down  from 
Los  Angeles  has  its  well-built  and  conducted  Stratford 
Inn,  and  National  City,  Ocean  Beach,  Cardiff-by-the-Sea 
and  Chula  Vista  all  have  their  especial  attractions. 

But  chief  of  all  of  San  Diego's  resorts  is  Hotel  del 
Coronado,  the  building  of  which  by  Mr.  Babcock  has  al- 
ready been  referred  to.  Charles  Dudley  Warner,  in  his 
Our  Italy,  openly  confessed  he  knew  of  nothing  else  in 
the  world  with  which  to  compare  it,  and  asserted  that  he 
never  saw  any  other  hotel  that  so  surprised  him  at  first, 
that  so  improved  on  a  two  wrecks'  acquaintance,  and  that 
left  in  the  mind  permanent  impressions  so  agreeable. 

Standing  in  its  own  park  of  several  acres,  the  building 
itself,  with  its  fine  patio  or  inner  court,  covers  about  four 


288     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

and  a  half  acres  of  ground.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century 
I  have  enjoyed  this  magnificent  hotel.  It  has  kept  step 
with  all  modern  improvements.  Its  equipment  to-day 
is  as  perfect  as  if  the  hotel  were  erected  but  yesterday. 

In  his  Seven  Lamps  of  Architecture  John  Ruskin 
wrote  most  eloquently  and  feelingly  of  the  memories  and 
associations  that  accumulate  in  an  old  family  mansion, 
in  a  castle,  cathedral  or  palace.  Is  not  this  one  of  the 
great  charms  that  gives  to  the  feeling  and  sentient  when 
they  stand  before,  or  enter  into  the  portals  of,  such 
buildings  an  imaginative  participation  in  those  events 
that  particularly  appeal  to  them?  Who  has  not  felt  the 
thrill,  the  awakening  of  the  emotions,  when,  under  elo- 
quent and  sympathetic  guidance,  a  A^isit  has  been  made 
to  these  centres  of  accumulated  associations?  The  In- 
dians have  a  similar  belief.  They  go  even  further  than 
the  highly  civilized.  They  are  fully  assured  that  the  spir- 
its of  the  happy  and  blest,  —  or  the  converse,  —  return 
to  inhabit,  in  invisible  form,  those  places  where  their 
joys  or  sorrows  were  lived  in  the  flesh. 

Were  I  a  writer  of  sentimental  novels  I  should  here 
expand  into  a  rhapsody  something  like  the  following: 


"  Many  a  time  when  I  have  visited  Hotel  del  Coronado  these  beh'efs 
have  asserted  themselves  in  my  own  mind.  I  have  found  myself  picturing 
the  happy  couples  who  have  come  here  on  their  honeymoon.  Wandering 
arm  in  arm  or  hand  in  hand  they  delightfully  haunt  the  corridors,  the 
sitting  and  lounging  rooms,  the  walks  and  the  beach.  One  sees  them  in 
the  palm  and  flower-embowered  patio,  when  the  brilliant  moon  sheds  glory 
all  around  and  the  mocking  birds  are  giving  full  voice  to  the  exuberance  of 
their  own  mated  happiness,  looking  into  each  other's  eyes,  glistening  with 
that  light  that  is  seen  nowhere  else,  on  land  or  sea  than  where  love  supreme 
shines  out  upon  a  beautiful  world. 

"  Even  the  varied  songs  of  Old  Ocean  are  attuned  to  this  theme.  Though 
the  waves  and  surges  are  new,  the  water  is  the  same  and  the  shore,  and  the 
songs  are  all  keyed  to  the  old  note,  ever  new,  of  overflowing  happiness. 
The  sky  takes  on  a  deeper  blue  in  the  daytime  because  of  it,  and  the  stars 


Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United  States   289 

are  more  dancingly  radiant  remembering  the  loving  glances,  fond  hand- 
clasps and  kisses  of  affection  they  have  looked  down  upon. 

"  Even  the  dining-room  becomes  a  place  of  sacrament  dedicated  to 
Joy,  where  everyday  food  partakes  of  new  blessing.  Every  table  is  sancti- 
fied by  the  joy  of  numberless  happy  couples.  Across  there  loving  looks 
have  been  exchanged,  whispers  of  bliss  heard.  The  radiant  aroma  of 
satisfied  love  affects,  blesses,  glorifies  every  article  of  food  placed  there. 
Lentils  become  lotus,  the  mo.st  ordinary  food  divine  delicacies.  Everything 
is  transfigured;  a  halo  of  happiness  transforms;  the  room  itself  is  a  cool 
symphony  of  delight;  the  snowy  linen,  glistening  cut-glass,  shining  silver 
of  the  tables  a  lure  to  the  senses.  The  soft  moving  attendants,  male  and 
female,  are  swift-winged  mercuries  of  pleasure,  alert  to  express  every  half- 
formed  desire.  The  soup  is  an  amber  ambrosia  fit  for  the  delectation  of 
celestial  beings;  the  greens  of  the  salads  take  on  a  tenderer  tint;  the  fruits 
look  richer;  the  foods  less  gross.  Personally  transformed  by  the  excellence 
of  Love,  everything  else  becomes  inestimably  enriched,  incomparable,  super- 
excellent.  The  fish-salad  is  no  longer  a  mere  artistic  combination  of  fish, 
vegetables  and  sauce,  but  a  glorified  blending  of  the  rare  essences  of  sea 
and  land.  The  slices  of  beef  or  mutton  bring  before  us  sun-kissed  meadows 
where  princesses  of  unearthly  beauty  lead  kine  and  lambs  with  lengths  of 
Cupid-strung  blossoms,  and  the  eyes  of  millions  of  exquisite  flowers  tender 
the  profoundest  homage  of  the  soul.  The  breasts  of  broiled  quail  or  chicken 
transform  us  to  slopes  familiar  with  the  rustling  of  angels'  wings  and  we 
see  the  glossy  sheen  of  olive-green  leaves  and  the  tender  purity  of  myriads 
of  white,  cream  and  lilac  blossoms,  over  which  stand,  in  calm  serenity, 
the  fairy  cream  cups  of  numberless  Candlesticks  of  Our  Lord. 

"  Here  and  there  flash  the  ambers,  purples,  hyacinths  and  topazes  o  f 
wine,  the  glowing  and  iridescent  notes  of  color  of  women's  dresses,  the  ar- 
resting maroon,  malachite  or  purple  of  their  hat  feathers,  and  then,  crown- 
ing all,  the  glorious  pictures  of  sea,  surf,  bay,  foothills  and  mountains 
glimpsed  through  the  open  windows,  through  which  also  pour  life-giving, 
body-soothing  zephyrs,  laden  with  odors  from  the  ever-blessed  gardens 
of    enchantment. 

"  Ah!  it  is  a  divine  gift  to  be  young  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  love's  young 
dream,  but  thrice  happy  he,  she,  who,  through  the  magic  of  imagination 
and  blissful  environment  can  recreate,  or  accept  the  recreation  of  the 
happy  past  and  live  again  in  its  revivified  memories.  Such  happiness  comes 
to  those  who  yield  to  the  prevailing  spirit  of  Hotel  del  Coronado." 

My !  my !  How  rhetorical,  rhapsodical  and  sentimental 
I  became,  as  I  wrote.  I  believe  I  must  try  my  hand  at 
that  kind  of  writing  again.  But,  unfortunately,  in  the 
present  pages  I  am  but  a  plain  every  day  man,  trying  to 


290     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

tell  a  wonderful  story  in  a  plain,  unvarnished  fashion, 
and  I  must  content  myself  with  prosaic  facts.  Hence  I 
am  compelled  to  a  simpler  method  of  expressing  the 
above  thoughts.  Note,  too,  how  compressed,  boiled 
down,  they  become,  when  reduced  to  their  "  greatest 
common  denominator  "  in  the  two  following  paragraphs. 

If  this  belief  be  true  in  regard  to  Hotel  del  Coronado 
numerous  tourists  who  visit  this  charming  place  must 
see  visions  of  matrimonial  bliss,  past  or  present,  real  or 
imaginary,  when  they  enter  its  portals,  for  it  is  a  favour- 
ite resort  for  the  newly  wedded. 

Many  a  happy  couple  has  been  seen  wandering  about 
the  delightful  rooms,  lingering  in  the  corridors,  haunting 
the  palm  and  flower-embowered  patio  or  strolling  on  the 
beach.  To  these  light-hearted  guests  everything  seems 
clothed  with  special  beauty  and  romance.  The  moon 
sheds  glory  all  around,  and  mocking  birds  sing  tlieir 
happiness  to  appreciative  ears.  The  surging  waves  are 
joyous  instead  of  "  sad,"  and  even  the  viands  served  in 
the  dining-hall  are  particularly  interesting  and  satisfac- 
tory. And  the  radiance  of  the  honey-moon  falls  upon 
many  a  warm-hearted  observer  and  awakens  a  sympa- 
thetic smile  or  the  memory  of  a  happy  past. 

I  can  also  truthfully  assert  that  bridal  couples,  old 
married  couples,  bachelors,  .widows,  widowers  and  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  men  and  women  of  the  better 
sort,  receive  a  cordial  welcome  from  Mr.  John  J.  Hernan. 
the  manager,  who  personally  sees  to  it  that  all  his  guests 
have  the  best  that  can  be  provided  for  them  in  every  way. 

Coronado  is  one  of  the  chief  polo  centres  of  the  United 
States.  A  fine  turf  field  is  provided  and  here  some  of 
the  great  tournaments  of  the  world  have  been  played. 


s?n^*?«V 


Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United  States   291 

Fascinating  in  the  extreme  to  the  spectator  as  well  as 
the  player  is  the  chase  after  the  little  white  ball,  and  the 
polo  ponies,  bred  as  carefully  as  the  most  prized  thor- 
oughbred racers  used  to  be,  for  strength,  speed  and  in- 
telligence, enter  into  the  game  with  a  spirit  and  vigour 
equalled  only  by  the  riders. 

On  North  Coronado  Beach  the  Navy  and  War  De- 
partments have  established  their  school  of  aviation.  The 
equable  climatic  conditions  render  the  air  navigator  more 
opportunities  for  daily  practice  than  are  afforded  else- 
where and  there  is  scarcely  a  day  in  the  whole  year  when 
aeroplanes  or  hydroplanes  may  not  be  seen  —  often  half 
a  dozen  or  more  at  a  time — skimming  through  the  air, 
spiralling  to  great  heights,  or  shooting  down  to  the 
water  like  giant  dragonflies. 

Point  Loma,  the  protecting  hill  that  shields  San  Diego 
bay  from  the  northwest,  is  one  of  the  most  attractive 
spots  California  has  to  ofifer.  Here  is  situated  the  In- 
ternational Centre  of  the  Universal  Brotherhood  and 
Theosophical  Society.  This  world-wide  organization 
is  the  continuation  and  outgrowth  of  the  original  The- 
osophical Society  founded  by  Mme.  H.  P.  Blavatsky  in 
New  York  in  1875,  continued  after  her  death  by  Will- 
iam Q.  Judge,  and  now  under  the  direction  of  their 
successor,  Katherine  Tingley. 

The  Point  Loma  Headquarters  were  established  by 
Mme.  Tingley  in  1900.  Among  its  activities,  the  most 
famous  is  that  of  the  Raja- Yoga  College,  which  has 
become  a  Mecca  for  educationalists  from  all  over  the 
world.  Here  some  three  hundred  pupils,  of  twenty  dif- 
ferent nationalities,  ranging  from  tiny  tots  just  able  to 
walk  to  young  men  and  women  taking  an  university 
course,  are  being  educated  under  the  Raja-Yoga  system 
founded  by  Mme.  Tingley.     The  aim  of  this  system  of 


292     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

education  is  to  induce  the  harmonious  development  of  all 
the  faculties,  mental,  moral  and  physical.  The  results 
obtained  are  certainly  very  remarkable,  and  justify  the 
prediction  that  as  these  young  men  and  women  go  out 
into  the  world  they  will  have  a  powerful  influence  in 
raising  the  tone  of  life  in  their  various  native  countries. 
The  influence  of  this  system  touches  the  lives  of  all  who 
come  in  contact  with  it,  even  of  the  oldest  students  of 
Theosophy. 

The  principal  buildings  in  connection  with  the  Theo- 
sophical  Headquarters  are  the  Raja-Yoga  Academy  and 
the  Temple  of  Music  and  Drama,  whose  great  glass 
domes  form  a  landmark  that  can  be  seen  for  miles  in 
any  direction ;  and  the  famous  Greek  Theatre,  the  first 
to  be  built  in  America.  The  latter  is  situated  at  the  head 
of  a  canyon  running  down  to  the  Pacific;  at  the  back 
of  the  arena  is  a  beautiful  Doric  stoa  of  most  perfect 
design;  the  architecture  and  setting  make  this  theatre 
one  of  the  chief  1:)eauty  spots  of  the  \Ytst.  The  Theatre 
seats  about  two  thousand  people,  and  the  acoustics  are 
perfect.  Music  and  the  Drama  are  very  important  fea- 
tures in  the  Raja-Yoga  System  of  Education. 

Another  important  activity  connected  with  the  Inter- 
national Theosophical  Headquarters  is  that  conducted 
by  the  Aryan  Theosophical  Press,  where  four  monthly 
magazines  are  produced,  one  in  the  Spanish  language, 
and  which  also  has  a  large  output  annually  of  Theo- 
sophical books  in  several  languages.  In  the  Photo- 
graphic and  Engraving  Department  all  the  engravings 
for  illustrating  the  magazines  are  made.  By  means  of 
distribution  of  literature  an  enormous  propaganda  is 
carried  on  all  over  the  world. 

Beyond  the  Theosophical  Headquarters  is  the  United 
States    Government    reser\^ation,    where    stands   the    old 


Southwestern  Corner  of  the  United  States    293 

Spanish  lighthouse,  now  dismantled.  A  modern  revolv- 
ing light  is  located  on  the  end  of  the  point  below.  On 
the  Bay  side  of  the  point  is  the  Quarantine  Station  above 
which  looms  up  the  monument  erected  to  the  memory 
of  the  sailors  who  lost  their  lives  on  the  ill-fated  Ben- 
nington. 

The  ride  out  to  Point  Loma  is  on  a  magnificent  boule- 
vard and  the  scene  at  the  end  of  the  Point  is  universally 
conceded  to  be  one  of  the  noted  views  of  the  world. 
Behind  one,  and  to  the  right,  sweep  away  in  endless 
expanse  the  perfect  blue  of  the  ocean.  At  one's  feet  are 
the  varying  colours  of  the  Bay,  leading  the  eye  over  the 
Coronado  peninsula,  with  its  curving  sandy  beach,  and 
at  the  head  of  which  are  the  two  "  islands,"  one  of  them 
crowned  with  the  striking  pile  of  Hotel  del  Coronado. 
Beyond  the  Bay  rises  the  city,  terrace  above  terrace,  em- 
bowed  in  a  glory  of  arboreal  beauty,  while  beyond  are 
mesas,  foothills,  and  sublime  mountain  peaks,  nearby 
and  far  away,  forming  a  galaxy  of  snowy  crested 
ranges,  or  purpled-hazed  summits  that  the  eye  never 
wearies  of  seeing  or  the  imagination  of  contemplating. 


CHAPTER    XIX 

THE  CALIFORNIA  DESERTS  AND  THEIR  RECLAMATION, 
WITH  ESPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  IMPERIAL,  COACHELLA 
AND    ANTELOPE    VALLEYS 

f  "I  am  the  Desert,  bare  since  Time  began, 

Yet  do  I  dream  of  motherhood,  when  Man, 
Some  day,  at  last,  shall  look  upon  my  charms 
And  give  me  towns  like  children  to  my  arms." 

The  desert  always  has  possessed  a  lure  for  many  and 
diverse  human  beings.  There  is  something  in  the  vast 
distances,  in  the  pure  and  invigorating  air,  the  clear 
pellucid  atmosphere,  the  ever  blue  sky,  the  stimulating 
sunshine,  the  ineffable  nights,  the  incomparable  stars, 
the  glorious  freedom,  that  appeal  irresistibly  to  certain 
types. 
^  To  others  it  comes  as  a  place  of  despair  bringing  up 
pictures  of  the  privations  of  early-day  pioneers,  of  trap- 
pers, hunters,  gold-seekers,  the  world's  restless  rovers, 
who,  long  before  the  days  of  railway  trains,  automo- 
biles, aeroplanes,  telegraphs  or  telephones,  started  forth 
to  explore  the  wild  and  desolate  places  of  the  earth. 
Wells,  springs  and  water-pockets  were  known  only  to 
the  Indians,  and  save  during  the  rainy  season  the  hardy 
adventurers  often  suffered  thirst,  even  at  times  lost  their 
lives,  for  need  of  the  precious  fluid  whose  very  exist- 
ence the  desert  seemed  to  deny.  Many  a  sinister  mound 
unmarked  by  stone  or  head-board  denotes  the  toll  the 
desert  was  wont  to  exact  from  those  who  dared  and 
defied  it,  but  ultimately  became  its  victims. 

294 


The  California  Deserts  295 

To  others  again  the  desert  acts  as  a  mental  stimulant, 
a  defiant  challenge,  an  arousement.     It  seems  to  say: 

"  Here  I  am,  virgin  soil  and  space,  practically  un- 
touched of  man  since  time  began.  Desert  I  have  ever 
been,  desert  I  now  am,  desert  I  shall  ever  be.  I  defy 
man  to  change  me,  to  tame  my  wildness,  to  make  me 
bring  forth  anything  but  the  wild  and  wonderful 
growths  I  have  made  my  own." 

And  some  men  have  always  been  found  daring  enough 
to  accept  the  challenge.  They  have  made  trails,  con- 
structed roads,  built  railways  over  the  waste  areas,  bored 
for  wells,  and  conveyed  streams  over  mountain  ranges 
and  foothills  to  irrigate  the  virgin  soil  and  make  it  yield 
to  the  yoke  of  man.  But  they  have  been  the  few,  the 
rare,  the  unusual  ones. 

Now,  however,  comes  modern  science  and  mechanics 
to  man's  aid  and  the  desert  of  the  past  is  rapidly  suc- 
cumbing to  the  new  conditions.  Science  and  mechan- 
ical skill  now  say  to  this  sphinx  of  the  past : 

"  We  will  strip  all  mystery,  all  horror,  all  dread  from 
your  face;  with  our  steam  engines  and  automobiles  we 
will  penetrate  to  3^our  most  secret  and  remotest  recesses ; 
with  our  high  voltage  long  distance  electric  transmission 
of  power  from  far-away  mountains  we  will  dig  or  bore 
deep,  deep  into  your  heart  and  find  the  artesian  foun- 
tains, which  for  centuries  have  been  locked  up  in  im- 
penetrable prisons;  with  this  same  power  we  will  uproot 
your  wild  and  savage  cactus  and  yucca  growths,  smooth 
down  your  rugged  and  irregular  surfaces,  plough  deep 
into  your  soil,  and  plant  therein  the  seeds  of  modern 
agriculture;  for  mesquite,  desert  willow,  yucca  palm 
and  creosote  bush  we  will  give  you  the  apple  and  pear, 
plum  and  apricot,  almond  and  olive,  date  and  orange. 

"  With  our  cement  canals  and  steel  conduits  we  will 


29G     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


convey  nourishing  water  where  we  will,  and  alfalfa 
fields,  waving  grain  —  of  barley,  oats,  rye,  Egyptian 
corn  and  millet  —  of  fruitful  vine  —  of  Malaga,  Mus- 
cat, Thompson  Seedless  and  other  grapes  shall  alternate 
with  our  blossom  and  fruit-laden  orchards. 

"  Where  the  horned-toad,  Hzard,  chuckawalla  and  des- 
ert turtle,  with  the  occasional  coyote,  jack-rabbit,  hawk, 
buzzard  and  eagle  alone  represented  animated  creation, 
happy  and  healthy  men,  women  and  children  shall  come, 
happy  because  they  are  healthy,  and  healthy  because  the 
life  of  work  in  the  open  o'f  God's  great  out-of-doors 
conduces  to  that  harmony  of  body,  mind  and  spirit  we 
call  health." 

Hence  the  Day  of  the  Desert,  as  Desert,  is  past.  The 
Bells  of  Change  are  ringing  out  the  old,  ringing  in  the 
new.  The  past  thirty  years  have  seen  the  "  Desert  of 
the  San  Joaquin "  become  the  most  fruitful  vineyard 
of  the  world;  the  Colorado  Desert  (Imperial  Valley) 
in  seven  years  become  the  proud  ai'biter  of  her  own  des- 
tinies as  Imperial  County;  the  Valley  of  Little  Shells 
— •  Conchilla,  popularly  known  as  the  Coachella'  Valley 
(on  the  same  Colorado  Desert)  has  become  the  home 
of  the  date  palm,  the  luscious  watermelon,  the  nectar- 
filled  cantaloupe,  the  long-staple  Egyptian  cotton,  the 
sweet  potato  and  the  honied  fig;  the  Cucamonga  Desert 
is  a  4,000-acre  vineyard  and  one  of  the  finest  citrus  fruit 
sections  of  California;  the  Antelope  Valley  (part  of 
the  Mohave  Desert)  challenges  the  world  to  equal  its 
crops  of  pears,  apples,  almonds  and  alfalfa. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  desert  areas  of  the  Golden 
State  that  have  lost  their  identity,  that  now  "  blossom 
as  the  rose,"  that  are  radiant  with  the  bloom  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand  orchards,  where  the  grade,  grammar  and 
high  school  bells  are  heard  in  every  section,  the  cheerful 


The  California  Deserts  297 

bells  of  numerous  churches  ring-  in  the  rest  and  peace 
of  contented  Sabbaths,  where  are  the  well-built  and  com- 
fortably furnished  bungalows  of  prosperous  people  and 
where  is  heard  the  toot  of  automobiles  of  farmers  who 
have  no  debts  and  a  balance  in  the  banks. 

There  are  still  areas,  however,  waiting  the  hand  and 
activities  of  man  to  effect  these  transformations.  Pros- 
perity and  wealth  still  await  the  efforts  of  those  men 
who  are  willing  to  grapple  with  the  problems  of  the 
desert  and  overcome  them. 

In  the  earliest  ages,  long  before  man  came  upon  the 
scene,  the  romance  of  the  desert  began.  How  came  it 
into  existence?  Most  people  imagine  that  deserts  were 
always  there,  formed  at  the  hour  of  Creation  by  the 
almighty  will  of  God  and  the  fiat  of  His  word.  But 
science  shows  us  that  deserts  have  grown,  been  built 
up,  just  as  man  erects  a  house,  only  that  it  has  taken 
coomtless  centuries  and  inconceivable  energy  to  produce 
these  wonderful  results. 

It  is  one  of  the  romances  of  natural  transportation 
that  the  Colorado  River  for  centuries  has  been  carrying 
down,  every  year,  a  Jiundrcd  or  more  millions  of  tons 
of  rocky  debris,  in  the  form  of  sand,  silt,  pebbles  and 
mud,  all  of  which  has  gone  to  form  the  Mohave  and 
Colorado  deserts,  and  to  fill  up  the  upper  portion  of  the 
great  opening  in  the  earth's  crust  that  we  call  the  Gulf 
of  California. 

The  romance  of  this  desert's  history  actually  began  \ 
when  the  Indians  first  went  upon  it,  dared  its  horrors, 
explored  its  wild  wastes,  and  finally  made  homes  near 
its  edges.  Then,  in  our  own  historic  time,  came  that 
redoubtable  explorer,  Don  Juan  Bautista  de  Anza,  sent  < 
by  the  Viceroy  of  New  Spain,  from  Sonora  to  find 
a  road  from  the  Mission  Settlements  of  Northern  Mex- 


298     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ico  to  those  of  Alta  California.  With  a  handful  of  sol- 
diers he  came  up  to  the  small  presidio  or  fortress  of 
Tubac,  some  sixty  miles  south  of  Tucson,  Arizona,  then 
boldly  struck  out  through  the  country  of  the  Apaches 
to  the  Gila  River,  down  that  uncertain  stream  to  the 
muddy  Colorado  and  its  treacherous  Yuma  Indians, 
across  and  over  the  fiery  sun-scorched  wastes  of  the 
desert  —  the  alkali  flats,  sand  hills,  sand  levels,  playas 
and  stretches  of  malapais  —  to  the  pass  through  which 
he  came  to  fertile  and  blessed  \'alleys,  and  in  one  of 
them  stood  the  Mission  San  Gabriel. 

This  same  warrior  made  his  report  of  the  feasibility 
of  the  road,  and  then  proved  his  faith  by  returning  over 
it,  recruiting  soldiers  and  colonists  for  the  new  presidio, 
mission  and  town  that  were  to  be  established  on  the 
newly  discovered,  magnificent  harbour  of  San  Fran- 
cisco. A  few  months  later  saw  him  back  again  with 
a  string  of  soldiers  and  their  wives,  colonists  (men, 
women  and  children),  together  with  one  hundred  and 
sixty-five  pack-mules  carrying  munitions  of  war,  pro- 
visions and  the  private  baggage  of  the  officers  and  sol- 
diers; a  herd  of  five  hundred  and  thirty  horses,  etc.,  and 
three  hundred  and  fifty-five  cattle. 

What  a  procession  to  cross  the  desert !  It  must  have 
I  been  over  a  mile  long,  and  every  day  it  started  out  in 
pretty  nearly  the  same  fashion.  The  chaplain  of  the 
expedition.  Padre  Pedro  Font,  of  the  Franciscan  order, 
gives  us  an  accurate  and  detailed  picture.  Four  soldiers 
went  ahead  as  scouts.  Anza  led  off  with  the  van-guard. 
Font  came  next,  and  after  him  came  men,  women  and 
children,  escorted  by  soldiers;  then  the  lieutenant 
brought  up  the  rear-guard.  Behind  these  followed  the 
three  pack-trains,  with  the  loose  horses,  and  last  of  all 
the  beef-herd.      As   soon   as   they   started    Font   would 


The  California  Deserts  299 


strike  up  a  hymn,  the  Albado,  to  which  all  the  people 
responded. 

In  imagination  we  see  them  marching  along,  some- 
times openly  and  at  other  times  stealthily  watched  by 
Indians,  startled  out  of  their  solitary  monotony  of  life 
by  such  a  great  gathering.  Who  understood  its  sig- 
nificance? A  new  civilization  was  crossing  the  desert 
in  those  colonists,  soldiers  and  priests.  That  hymn  was 
an  unconscious  sounding  of  the  death-kneli  of  heathen- 
dom and  savagery.  In  that  procession  was  the  germ 
that  sprang  into  life  as  the  "  City  of  Destiny,"  the 
City  by  the  Golden  Gate,  the  undaunted  city  of  San 
Francisco. 

How  one  would  have  enjoyed  looking  on  their  night- 
camps,  if  it  could  have  been  done  without  any  of  the 
weariness  such  desert-travelling  produces.  Tents  arose 
as  by  magic;  rude  shelters  of  boughs  covered  with 
cloaks,  blankets,  .shawls,  etc.,  added  to  the  picturesque- 
ness,  while  bustle,  excitement,  shouting  at  the  mules 
accompanied  the  removal  of  the  packs,  the  building  of 
fires  for  cooking  the  evening  meal,  and  the  stretching 
out  of  blankets  for  sleeping.  Every  night  an  evening 
hymn  was  sung,  as  a  rule  each  family  striking  up  its 
own  favourite,  in  its  own  key  and  at  its  own  tempo,  and 
paying  no  attention  to  the  others.  The  pious  heart  of 
Font  triumphed  over  the  jumble  and  discord,  and  he 
asserts  that  the  variety  had  a  pleasing  effect. 

Now  and  again  excitement  reigned  supreme  in  the 
hearts  of  some  of  the  party,  as,  for  instance,  once  when 
a  soldier's  wife  gave  birth  to  a  fine  child,  but  unfor- 
tunately the  labour  was  difficuJt,  and  the  mother  died 
at  dawn. 

Accompanying  the  party  as  far  as  the  Colorado  River 
was  another  Franciscan  friar  named  Garces.     This  same 


300     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Garces  was  quite  an  explorer.  He  had  gone  over  the 
country  with  Anza  on  his  first  trip,  and  now  started  off 
on  another  expedition  of  his  own.  He  rambled  up  and 
down,  reaching  the  Havasupais  in  the  stupendous  depths 
of  their  cataract-canyon  home,  near  the  Grand  Canyon, 
then  crossed  the  Little  Colorado  and  wandered  over  the 
Painted  Desert  until  he  reached  the  Hopi  villages,  where 
he  witnessed  -the  interesting  and  beautiful  Flute  Dance 
ceremony,  finally  arriving  in  safety  at  his  cell  in  Tuba- 
tama  in  Sonora.  A  few  years  later  he  was  appointed 
to  the  Missions  of  the  Colorado  River,  for  the  Yumas, 
as  related  in  the  chapter  on  the  Missions,  and  there 
became  a  martyr  to  the  treacherous  ferocity  of  these 
untamed  savages. 

Aye,  and  in  that  same  uprising  the  former  governor 
of  California,  Rivera,  was  cruelly  done  to  death,  he 
and  the  men  who  formed  his  escort.  And  while  it  did 
not  seem  at  all  romantic  at  the  time,  fleeing  from  the 
sudden  death  that  had  come  upon  his  former  comrades 
and  friends,  scared  that  every  sound  he  heard  was  of 
a  foe  stealthily  creeping  upon  him.  afraid  to  travel  by 
day  lest  he  be  seen,  and  by  night  lest  he  get  lost,  fam- 
ished for  want  of  water,  starving  for  want  of  food, 
crazed  for  want  of  sleep,  it  was  a  romantic  ride  made 
by  Ensign  Limon,  one  of  Rivera's  soldiers,  who  brought 
the  news  to  the  horror-stricken  priests  at  San  Gabriel. 

But  we  must  not  linger  too  long  on  these  earlier  day 
historic  memories.  We  must  take  one  peep,  however, 
/at  Pattie  and  his  fellow  trappers  who  braved  the  desert's 
';  dangers  in  1829,  only  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  suspicious 
Mexicans,  who  imprisoned  them  and  kept  them  cooped 
up  in  their  adobe  jails  for  a  full  vear  or  more:  at  Fre- 
mont and  Kit  Carson  as  they  passed  by;  at  General 
Kearny  and  his  one  hundred  dragoons  who  formed  the 


The  California  Deserts  301 

Army  of  the  West,  and  wiho  inarched  to  the  subjugation 
of  CaHfornia  to  find  two  great  disappointments  ahead  of 
them — one,  that  Sloat,  Fremont  and  Stockton  had  al- 
ready achieved  the  conquest  of  the  Golden  State,  and 
the  other,  that  a  band  of  six  hundred  disaffected  Mex- 
ican-Californians  was  determined  to  challenge  their  free 
passage  over  the  land.  The  sad  field  of  San  Pasqual 
was  only  a  few  musket-shots  from  an  outlook  point 
over  the  desert,  and  there  poor  Captain  Johnston  and 
seventeen  of  his  troopers  laid  down  their  lives.  General 
Kearny  was  wounded,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  daring 
\  bravery  of  Kit  Carson  and  the  young  Lieutenant  Beale, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  Kearny  section  of  the  Army 
of  the  West  would  ever  have  been  heard  of  again. 

A  few  bands  of  Indians  always  have  lived  on  the 
edges  of  these  deserts  —  the  Mohaves  and  Yumas,  the 
Chimehuevas  and  Cocopahs  on  the  Colorado  River  side, 
those  of  tribes  akin  to  the  so-called  Mission  Indians  of 
California  on  the  San  Jacinto,  San  Gorgonio  and  San 
Bernardino  Mountains'  sides.  A  brave,  hardy,  rugged 
lot  of  aborigines,  using  the  wonderful  and  scareful 
spring  of  hot  water  at  Palm  Springs  as  their  health 
resort,  gathering  their  big-pitted  native  dates  from  the 
palms  of  Palm  Canyon,  collecting  their  acorns  from  the 
mountain  slopes  and  making  their  mush,  flour,  bread, 
tortillas,  drink  and  candy  from  the  beans  found  on  the 
mesquite  trees  which  dotted  the  desert's  face  on  every 
side. 

Then  came  the  foreshadowing  of  a  new  era.  One 
man  with  a  vision,  Dr.  Wozencroft  of  San  Bernardino, 
a  pioneer  of  pioneers,  looked  over  this  great  eighty- 
mile  long  and  fifty-mile  wide  desert.  He  saw  the  tur- 
bulent floods  of  the  Colorado  River  pouring  uselessly 
by.     He  grasped  the  possibilities,  the  certainties,  if  these 


302     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

two  —  the  sun-kissed  desert  and  the  muddy  river  — 
could  be  joined  in  solemn  and  happy  wedlock.  He  saw 
with  clearest  sight  the  children  that  must  come  of  such 
a  union,  and  he  realized  what  it  would  mean  to  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  home-seeking  men  and  women.  He 
engaged  engineers,  sought  to  interest  capital,  bombarded 
the  seats  of  government,  wrote,  spoke,  described,  pic- 
tured, argued  and  reasoned.  But  he  was  ahead  of  his 
time.  The  wiseacres  laughed  at  him,  the  know-it-alls 
pooh-hooed  his  "  insane  folly,"  and  even  the  ''  far-see- 
ing "  legislators  in  Washington  scornfully  and  jeeringly 
made  him  a  present  of  thousands  of  acres  which  their 
experts  specially  reported  as  land  that  was  now  and 
always  would  be  useless,  because  incapable  of  cultiva- 
tion. Fate  seemed  to  be  against  Dr.  Wozencroft,  how- 
ever, for  he  died  before  anything  could  be  accomplished. 
Yet  his  work  was  not  in  vain. 

The  wonderful  thing  about  some  visions  is  that  they 
persist.  Even  though  the  men  who  first  see  them  die 
and  pass  on.  the  intangible  scenes  of  their  unconquerable 
souls  are  projected  into  the  atmosphere,  as  it  were, 
ready  to  dominate  some  other  far-seeing  soul  at  the 
proper  moment.  This  moment  arrived  in  due  time,  and 
then  it  was  haste,  haste,  all  haste,  to  visualize  the  vision 
in  objective  reality.  A  headgate  was  put  into  the  bank 
of  the  Colorado  River,  a  canal  cut  through  the  sand 
to  the  bed  of  a  prehistoric  river,  —  the  Alamo,  —  which 
would  convey  the  water  to  the  distributing  point  on  the 
edge  of  the  desert  that  Fate  had  now  decreed  should  be 
a  desert  no  longer. 

Watch  the  workmen  put  in  that  headgate. 

Then  grasp — or  try  to  —  the  full  significance  of  this 
fact,  viz.,  that  in  seven  short  years  from  the  digging 
up  of  the  first  shovelful  of  earth,  the  sawing  of  the  first 


The  California  Deserts  303 


board  for  that  headgate,  the  hammering  of  the  first  nail, 
three  milHon  acres  —  more  or  less  —  of  this  whilom 
desert,  was  raised,  by  the  act  of  the  legislature  of  the 
supreme  State  of  California,  to  the  honour,  dignity  and 
responsibility  of  a  county. 

Desert!  Laugh  at  the  term  and  all  it  implies.  In 
seven  years  its  barren,  desolate  wastes  were  transformed 
into  as  fertile  acres  as  those  of  the  Nile  Valley;  thirty- 
five  thousand  happy  and  prosperous  people  had  made 
it  their  homes,  the  towns  and  cities  of  Calexico,  Holt- 
ville,  Imperial,  Brawley,  El  Centro,  and  Silsbee  had 
sprung  into  existence,  with  fine  streets  of  stores,  banks, 
hotels,  theatres,  churches  and  homes,  each  with  its  one 
or  two  daily  or  weekly  newspapers  and  all  the  other 
concomitants,  such  as  water-works,  fuel  gas,  electric- 
light,  power,  sewer,  that  go  to  the  making  of  a  pros- 
perous cosmopolitan  life. 

New  cities  have  since  sprung  into  life,  and  Date  City, 
Seeley,  Dixieland,  Heber,  Rockwood,  Bernice,  West- 
moreland, and  Nileland  are  on  the  map,  actual  realities 
and  rapidly  growing.  The  Southern  Pacific,  years  ago, 
built  a  railway  from  Imperial  Junction  down  into  Mex- 
ico, tapping  all  the  important  towns,  save  Holtville, 
which  was  independent  enough  to  build  its  own  line, 
connecting  with  the  capitol  of  the  new  county.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 19 14,  the  State  Railway  Commission  empowered 
the  issuance  of  bonds  for  the  completion  of  the  San 
Diego  and  Arizona  Railway,  which  is  to  reach  from  the 
"  Harbour  of  the  Sun  "  into  the  heart  of  fertile  Im- 
perial County,  completely  across  it  into  the  growing 
empire  of  Arizona.  The  last  week  in  February  of  19 14 
I  personally  rode  over  the  rapidly  extending  railway, 
past  Seeley  and  Dixieland,  out  to  Coyote  Wells,  which 
is   practically   at   the    foot   of   the    range   of  mountains 


304     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

that  separates  the  Imperial  Valley  from  the  San  Diego 
Country.  How  long  will  it  take  to  complete  it?  It 
is  not  hard  to  prophesy,  but  the  prophet  labours  under 
the  diflkulty  that  no  one  can  foresee  the  immediate 
or  later  results  of  the  building  of  that  railway.  Ready 
access  to  the  nearest  Calif ornian  seaport  to  the  Panama 
Canal  will  be  merely  a  few  hours  away.  Cotton,  grapes, 
canteloupes,  melons,  onions,  sweet  potatoes,  asparagus, 
cattle,  sheep,  hogs,  butter,  eggs,  poultry  of  all  kinds, 
hay,  grain  —  in  a  few  hours  within  the  span  of  sunrise 
to  sunset  —  may  be  transferred  from  the  ranches  on 
this  former  desert  to  the  hold  of  a  New  York  or  Eu- 
ropean bound  steamer,  and  actually  out  of  harbour, 
sailing'  on  the  bosom  of  the  briny  deep,  bound  for  its 
far-away  destination.  Even  Aladdin  with  his  wonderful 
lamp,  or  Who-ever-he-was  with  his  magic  carpet,  could 
not  perform  greater  wonders  than  these. 

All  this,  however,  has  not  been  accomp-lished  without 
struggle.  Nature,  at  times,  has  seemed  to  be  very  ad- 
verse to  man's  claims  and,  in  one  instance,  nothing  but 
the  fact  that  a  great  railroad's  main  track  was  jeopardized 
seemed  to  stand  between  the  Imperial  Valley  and  ruin. 
The  story  of  that  struggle  and  its  success  is  an  epic 
of  modern  achievement  as  thrilling  and  exciting  in  its 
alternate  hopings  and  despairs  as  is  Homer.  When  put- 
tine  in  the  headgate  in  the  Colorado  River,  which  was 
to  allow  the  vivifying  water  to  flow  into  the  Valley, 
Mr.  Rockwood  planned  to  place  it  at  an  elevation  of 
ninety-eight  feet  above  sea  level.  Mr.  George  Chaffey, 
the  financier  and  practical  irrigation  expert,  who  had 
undertaken  to  carry  out  the  project,  but  who  was  under 
no  contract  or  obligation  to  do  the  work  as  Mr.  Rock- 
wood  had  planned,  intended  to  sink  it  to  the  ninety-six 
foot  level.     But,  unfortunately,   just  as  the  work  was 


The  California  Deserts  305 

progressing,  an  unexpected  spring  flood  came,  and  com- 
pelled the  hasty  completion  of  the  work.  As  settlers 
were  already  on  the  lands,  and  life  was  impossible  with- 
out water,  Mr.  Chaffey  hastily  constructed  the  headgate 
but  was  compelled  to  put  it  in  at  an  elevation  of  103 
feet,  five  feet  higher  than  Mr.  Rockwood's,  and  eight  feet 
higher  than  his  own,  intention.  The  situation,  however, 
was  saved  and  work  in  the  desert  begun  and  successfully 
carried  on.  This  was  in  the  spring  of  190 1.  In  Febru- 
ary of  1902  Mr.  Chaffey  sold  out  his  interests  to  Mr. 
A.  H.  Heber,  who  agreed  to  lower  the  headgate,  and 
also  put  in  two  supplementary  ones,  which  Mr.  Chaffey 
deemed  essential  to  the  safety  of  the  system.  Unfor- 
tunately Mr.  Heber  was  unable  to  carry  out  his  promise, 
and  Nature  soon  demonstrated  how  essential  it  was  that 
it  should  have  been  done.  The  canal  leading  from  the 
headgate,  not  having  the  depth  it  should  have  had,  rap- 
idly silted  up  and,  during  the  period  of  low  tide,  when 
water  was  most  needed  in  the  Valley  • — ■  for  without  it 
the  summer's  sun  would  reconvert  everything  into  des- 
ert inside  of  a  few  weeks  — •  it  was  impossible  to  secure 
it.  Mr.  Rockwood  then  did  what  nothing  but  the  urgent 
needs  of  the  settlers  would  have  led  him  to  do.  He  cut 
a  by-pass  from  the  river  to  the  canal,  below  the  silted 
up  portion,  and  thus  allowed  the  water  to  run  directly 
from  the  river  to  the  irrigation  headworks.  Before  the 
spring  floods  came  this  was  closed  up  safely  and  all 
was  serene,  no  one  dreaming  that  the  very  success  of 
the  expedient  was  its  chief  menace.  Mr.  Heber  was 
thus  lulled  into  security  and  so  were  the  settlers.  The 
former  did  not  feel  the  pressure  to  lower  the  headgate 
as  he  would  have  done  had  the  settlers  gone  without 
water  to  their  temporary  ruin,  and  the  latter  did  not 
know,  or  at  least  did  not  realize,  the  jeopardy  in  which 


306     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

they  were  placed.  For  the  next  year  brought  the  same 
difliculty  which  was  relieved  in  the  same  fashion,  and 
the  next  year  the  same.  Now,  however  (in  1905),  Mr. 
Rockwood  was  caught  by  an  unexpected  spring  flood 
just  as  Mr.  Chaffey  had  been  caught  in  1901.  All  ef- 
forts to  close  the  by-pass  were  vain.  The  rushing  waters 
came  faster  and  more  of  them,  until,  after  repeated 
efforts  and  the  expenditure  of  many  thousands  of  dol- 
lars, the  narrow  passage,  cut  to  allow  a  temporary  flow 
of  water  into  the  canal,  was  a  mile  wide  and  thirty-five 
feet  deep,  through  which  every  drop  of  the  great  river 
was  pouring  to  find  its  level  where  it  might. 

Where  did  it  go? 

The  ancient  Alamo  River  was  full  to  overflowing,  but 
enough  was  conveyed  to  the  headgates  at  Sharps  to 
threaten  the  washing  out  of  the  whole  system  and  the 
deepening  of  the  canals  to  such  an  extent  that  water 
could  not  be  raised  to  the  level  of  the  lands.  At  Sharps 
the  river  takes  an  acute  turn  to  the  north,  through  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Valley,  past  Holtville,  and  it  finally 
emptied  into  the  lowest  level  of  the  desert  floor.  On 
the  other  hand,  much  of  the  overflowed  water  found 
its  way  to  Volcano  Lake  in  Mexico,  and  from  there 
again  overflowed  into  the  New  River,  which  ran  north, 
on  the  western  side  of  Imperial  Valley,  and  likewise 
emptied  into  the  old  sink  of  the  desert. 

When  there  had  been  heavy  floods  in  past  years, 
before  the  Imperial  reclamation  work  was  begun,  water 
had  been  found  mysteriously  to  flow  into  this  sink. 
As  it  was  near  to  Salton,  a  station  on  the  main  "  Sunset 
Route  "  of  the  Southern  Pacific,  it  was  soon  known  by 
the  name  of  the  Salton  Sink.  For  a  long  time  the  news- 
papers published  ridiculous  stories  of  the  inflowing  of 
water   through    subterranean    channels   into    the    Salton 


The  California  Deserts  307 

from  the  Pacific  Ocean,  but  in  due  time  it  was  found 
that  all  this  water  came  by  way  of  Volcano  Lake,  from 
the  overflows  of  the  Colorado  River,  down  New  River. 

This  flood  of  1905,  however,  was  so  much  more  seri- 
ous than  any  flood  had  been  for  so  many  years,  and  the 
fact  that  the  whole  of  the  waters  of  the  Colorado  River 
were  being  diverted  into  it  by  way  of  the  Rockwood 
cut,  through  the  Alamo,  as  well  as  the  New  River,  made 
of  the  Salton  Sink,  in  a  few  months,  the  Salton  Sea, 
fifty  miles  long  and  twenty  miles  wide. 

It  reached  the  track  of  the  Southern  Pacific.  They 
moved  it  to  a  point  they  deemed  safe.  The  rising  waters 
flooded  it  again.  Again  it  was  moved.  Once  again  the 
slow-rising  water  came,  with  what  seemed  to  the  anx- 
ious railway  officials  unseemly  haste.  Once  again  the 
track  was  flooded  and  removed.  Each  removal,  naturally, 
meant  a  large  expenditure  to  the  Railway  Company. 

By  now  the  whole  countr)'-  was  aroused.  The  her- 
culean efforts  of  the  California  Development  Company 
to  close  the  breach  were  still  in  vain,  and  the  Southern 
Pacific  Company  felt  it  was  a  matter  they  must  seriously 
consider,  for  the  line  was  again  threatened.  President 
Roosevelt  was  appealed  to.  He  called  upon  Mr.  E.  H. 
Harriman,  president  of  the  Southern  Pacific,  to  do  the 
work,  and  assured  him  that  Congress  would  pay  the 
bill.  With  characteristic  energ}^  Mr.  Harriman's  leading 
engineers  undertook  the  work.  Every  flat  and  dirt  car 
and  engine  capable  of  being  used  was  requisitioned,  and 
three  quarries  rifled  day  and  night  to  supply  rock  for 
the  filling  up  of  this  rapacious  maw.  Millions  of  tons, 
—  scores  of  thousands  of  car-loads  of  rock  were  brought, 
and  train-loads  of  thirty-five  and  forty  feet  long  piles, 
scores  of  tons  of  steel  cable  for  the  weaving  of  wire 
tnats,   into  which  thousands  of  bundles  of  arrowweed 


308     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

and  other  brush  were  woven,  to  afford  temporary  hold- 
ings for  the  car-loads  of  rock,  which  otherwise  would 
have  sunk  into  what  seemed  to  be  a  "  bottomless  pit." 
Day  after  day,  week  after  week,  the  apparently  hopeless 
conflict  was  waged.  There  was  never  a  moment's  ces- 
sation. Three  gangs  of  men  were  worked  on  eight- 
hour  shifts,  and  fiercely  blazing  electric  lights  turned 
the  night  into  day  that  no  moment  might  be  lost.  The 
Salton  Sea  spread  out  until  it  was  practically  seventy- 
five  miles  long  and  twenty-five  broad  before  the  tireless 
efforts  of  Mr.  Epes  Randolph  and  his  assistants  began 
to  give  promise  of  success.  Nature  now  wearied  of 
the  conflict,  seeing  that  she  had  found  men  dauntless 
enough  to  take  her  great  challenge,  and  the  floods  from 
the  melting  snow  began  to  diminish  and  finally  dwindle 
to  their  normal  flow.  Then,  with  an  extra  spurt,  work 
on  the  restraining  dam  across  the  cut  was  hastened,  the 
breach  finally  closed,  and  with  a  sigh  of  relief  that  was 
changed  into  a  national  song  of  victory,  the  engineers 
declared  their  hard  fight  won,  their  victory  achieved. 

It  was  one  of  the  most  wonderful  struggles  of  his- 
tory, and  the  Southern  Pacific  said  it  cost  them  three 
millions  of  dollars.  When,  however,  the  1)ill  was  pre- 
sented to  Congress,  that  august  body,  for  reasons  which 
I  never  clearly  understood,  repudiated  the  word  of  the 
nation's  president  and  offered  the  railw^iy  a  million  dol- 
lars in  settlement  of  the  account.  To  my  mind  the 
Nation  is  still  indebted  to  the  Southern  Pacific  to  the 
extent  of  two  million  dollars,  unless  it  can  be  shown 
that  their  bill  was  fraudulent. 

Guarded  by  levees,  the  danger  of  flood  reduced  to  the 
minimum  by  the  increasing  number  of  irrigation  sys- 
tems drawing  water  from  the  Colorado,  and  an  addi- 
tional factor  of  safety  being  added  in  the  monster  La- 


.^' . i;mi.^'£^:i-.T' .. '.  : 


The  California  Deserts  309 

guna  Dam,  which  crosses  the  river  a  few  miles  above 
Yuma,  and  distributes  water  to  both  the  CaHfornia  and 
Arizona  sides,  there  is  no  possibiHty  of  a  recurrence  of 
this  danger. 

Freed  from  all  menace  or  fear,  the  settlers  of  the 
Imperial  Valley  have  steadily  gone  on  making  further 
encroachments  upon  the  vast  wastes  and  solitudes,  until 
now  their  achievements  have  become  the  wonder  of  the 
world. 

To  some  mentalities,  however,  there  may  not  seem 
to  be  much  beauty  in  the  romantic  transformation  of 
the  desert,  yet  there  are  few  who  can  look  upon  these 
vast  fields  of  green  alfalfa,  the  immense  areas  of  olive, 
orange,  lemon,  peach,  apricot,  pomegranate  and  fig 
orchards,  with  the  stately  groves  of  tropical  date-palms, 
the  miles  and  miles  of  luscious  melons  and  canteloupes, 
and  the  thousands  of  acres  of  growing  cotton  with  its 
fluffy  balls  of  purest  white  making  the  green  all  the 
more  delicious,  without  feeling  a  quick  wave  of  ad- 
miration sweep  over  him.  For  the  alfalfa  that  grows 
here  is  richer  and  greener  than  anywhere  else,  the  olive 
leaves  more  silvery  and  grayer,  the  oranges  more  viv- 
idly golden,  the  lemons  and  grapefruit  of  a  softer,  more 
delicate  tinge,  so  that  even  the  colour  values  are  en- 
hanced by  strengthening  or  refining  and  softening. 

Then,  too,  there  are  the  great  bands  of  horses,  of 
cattle,  of  sheep,  that  have  been  brought  here  to  fatten. 
There  is  a  beauty  all  its  own  in  them.  Pastoral  scenes 
by  the  mile  which  Gray  and  Oliver  Goldsmith  and 
Crabbe  and  Wordsworth  would  have  delighted  to  de- 
scribe. 

Even  every  irrigating  ditch  has  a  beauty  and  charm 
peculiar  to  itself,  —  the  rapidly-growing  cottonwoods, 
the  towering  eucalyptus  lining  its  banks,  —  and  the  lush 


310     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

grass   growth,    all   combine   to   make    these   streams    of 
living  waters  channels  of  delight  to  the  eye. 

Harold  Bell  Wright  had  no  difficulty  in  seeing  the 
t  romance  of  the  desert.  He  came,  attracted  by  the  stories 
he  had  heard,  he  foregathered  with  old-timers  who  told 
him  of  the  desert  as  they  used  to  know  it,  he  met  Mr. 
W.  F.  Holt,  the  father  of  Holtville,  the  builder  and 
head  of  the  Holtville  Railway  and  successful  projector 
of  many  most  helpful  and  useful  enterprises,  and  there 
leaped  into  his  mind  a  story  that  he  soon  put  upon  paper, 
and  was  printed  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies : 

f  The  Winning  of  Barbara  Worth.  In  all  its  main  state- 
ments regarding  the  transformations  of  the  desert  caused 

•  by  man's  indomitable  energy  and  unconquerable  will  this 
romance  is  soberest  truth.  And  to  its  pages  I  refer  those 
who  would  follow  this  phase  of  the  subject  further. 

As  yet,  however,  I  have  said  nothing  of  the  beauty 
of  the  desert;  and  I  am  afraid  I  can  say  but  little,  for 
the  subject  is  beyond  my  powers.  It  requires  greater 
verbal  ability  than  I  possess.  I  wish  the  reader  might 
have  been  with  me  on  the  automobile  ride  I  took  recently 
(February  24,  1914)  in  near  proximity  to  El  Centro. 
The  first  thing  every  one  notices  is  the  clarity  and  dry- 
ness of  the  atmosphere.  Though  cool  it  was  pleasant 
and  agreeable,  and  one  breathed  it  in  deeply  with  a  sat- 
isfying sense  of  its  exquisite  purity.  The  green  on 
every  hand,  in  all  its  varying  shades,  seemed  to  make 
the  gray,  soft  tones  of  the  unreclaimed  areas  more 
"  bloodless  "  and  arid.  Yet  there  is  a  delicate  beauty 
in  the  atriplex,  or  salt  bush,  and  a  vividness  of  the  green 
of  the  creosote  bush  (Larrea  Mexicana),  that  is  only 
equalled  by  the  deep  green  of  the  magnolia,  laurel  and 
orange.  The  date-palms  gave  their  stately  dignity  to 
the  scene  as  if  proud  of  their  presence  in  this  western 


The  California  Deserts  311 

habitat,  —  far  away  from  their  native  Persian  Gulf. 
The  flooding  sunHght  compelled  every  colour  to  yield 
to  its  dazzling  brilliancy,  like  a  triumphant  king  demand- 
ing tribute  on  every  hand.  The  great  mountains,  tower- 
ing in  places  thirteen  thousand  feet  into  the  cloudless 
cerulean  sky,  presented  their  purple  barriers  to  the  eye, 
and  as  the  sun  began  to  sink,  cast  vast  shadows  over  the 
thirsty  land  below.  A  few  clouds  on  their  summits  be- 
came orange  and  crimson,  glowing  in  supernal  beauty, 
and  casting  a  halo  all  along  the  far-extending  ranges, 
which  became  flushed  with  rich  pink,  chocolates,  deep 
purples,  madder-lakes  and  crimsons,  until,  as  if  the  light 
of  a  great  day  had  slowly  been  turned  out,  the  vivid- 
ness was  diminished,  and  a  gentle,  almost  melancholy 
tinge  of  gray  covered  the  scene.  But  soon  the  stars 
came  out.  They  came  with  a  close  vividness  never  seen 
in  a  moist  climate.  There  were  myriads  more  of  them 
than  are  revealed  on  the  clearest  night  in  the  East,  and 
they  seemed  a  fitting  conclusion  to  a  day  of  rich  experi- 
ences, suggesting  thoughts  of  unwearying  watchfulness, 
serene  peace  and  never  failing  brilliancy. 

The  Coachella  Valley 

All  that  has  been  said  of  the  remarkable  development 
of  the  Imperial  Valley  applies  with  equal  force  to  the 
Coachella  Valley,  except  that  the  source  of  the  water 
which  has  worked  the  transformation  is  different.  The 
Coachella  Valley,  though  a  part  of  the  great  Colorado 
Desert,  is  now  too  far  away  from  the  river  to  receive 
water  for  irrigation  from  its  stream.  But  a  few  years 
ago  the  government,  in  seeking  to  aid  the  Indian,  sunk 
a  trial  artesian  well.  At  great  depth  a  marvellous  flow 
of  pure  water  was  struck,  which  came  forth  with  such 


312     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

force  as  to  demonstrate  the  existence  of  a  great  under- 
ground flow.  Since  then  scores  of  wells  have  been  put 
in  from  above  Indio  to  below  Mecca,  with  gratifying 
results.  Near  Indio  water  is  found  from  fifty  to  two 
hundred  feet  below  the  surface,  but  pumping  is  required 
to  make  it  available  for  irrigation.  At  Coachella  the 
artesian  flow  has  pressure  enough  to  make  the  water 
rise  several  feet  above  the  surface,  and  at  Thermal  and 
Mecca  many  of  the  wells  are  gushers.  In  19 13  I  put 
in  a  well  on  land  I  had  purchased  from  the  Southern 
Pacific  Company.  We  went  down  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  nine  hundred  feet,  and  there  came  rushing  out,  with 
great  force  over  the  casing,  a  flow  of  between  fifty-five 
and  sixty  inches. 

The  Government  has  its  two  date  experimental  farms 
in  the  Coachella,  one  at  Mecca,  the  other  at  Indio. 
Date  culture  has  gone  past  the  experimental  stage  and 
now  it  has  entered  upon  its  era  of  full  development. 
Egyptian  cotton  of  the  finest  quality  is  found  to  grow 
here,  with  large  yield,  as  it  grows  nowhere  else  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  Calimyrna  fig  (a  fig  developed 
in  California  by  Mr.  Geo.  C.  Roeding,  of  Fresno),  that 
has  all  the  sweetness  of  the  Oriental  fig  with  qualities 
that  allow  it  to  be  packed  and  shipped  across  the  con- 
tinent, zuhile  fresh,  is  being  planted  out  in  large  quan- 
tities. 

The  Antelope  Valley 

In  the  Antelope  Valley,  on  the  Mohave  desert,  equally 
astonishing  transformations  have  taken  place,  though 
in  somewhat  less  dramatic  though  equally  romantic 
fashion.  Forty,  fifty  years  ago,  herds  of  antelope 
roamed  over  this  valley  in  vast  numbers,  hence  the  name. 
Standing  at  what  is  now  Palmdale  one  can  look  over 


The  California  Deserts  313 

about  640,000  acres,  of  what  in  those  early  days  were 
regarded  as  absolutely  irreclaimable  desert.  Thirty 
years  ago,  before  the  day  of  the  gasoline  engine  and 
cheap  pumping-plant,  settlers  came  to  this  gaunt  land 
of  yuccas,  brush,  grass  and  sage.  They  dug  wells,  and 
found  enough  water  for  their  own  use  near  enough  to 
the  surface,  but  that  watered  no  crops;  hence  it  was 
not  long  before  they  were  compelled  to  abandon  their 
claims.  Seven  years  later  the  flood  streams  of  Little 
Rock  and  Big  Rock  Creek,  which  flowed  down  from 
the  surrounding  mountains  tempted  a  fresh  crop  of  set- 
tlers, and  an  irrigation  district  was  formed  and  some 
two  thousand  acres  of  almonds  and  prunes  planted  out. 
The  altitude,  how^ever,  was  too  high;  the  trees  bloomed 
too  early  and  the  cold  lingered  too  late ;  and  in  addition 
the  government  and  the  railway  that  owned  many  of 
these  lands  got  into  bitter  litigation,  and,  as  if  this  were 
not  enough,  water  litigation  arose.  It  took  twenty- four 
years  to  finally  and  completely  settle  the  litigation,  but 
even  then,  when  poor  men  tried  to  settle  on  this  land 
they  found  it  cost  them  too  much,  and  again  it  was 
abandoned. 

A  few  men,  however,  stuck  to  their  lands,  and,  fur- 
thermore, some  of  them  early  ventured  on  a  different 
crop.  They  planted  pears  and  apples.  In  1909  it  was 
discovered  that  one  of  these  men  who,  seventeen  years 
before,  had  planted  pear  trees,  was  receiving  $2,000 
per  acre  gross,  from  his  crop.  This  was  the  exceptional 
case,  but  several  others  were  receiving  large,  wonderfully 
large,  returns.  The  result  can  well  be  imagined.  A 
company  undertook  to  install  a  perfect  and  complete 
irrigation  system.  Lands  were  sold  and  planted  out 
to  these  tested  crops,  and  now  the  region  is  one  of  pros- 
perity and  increasing  values.     Here,  as  in  so  many  other 


314     Oalifornia,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

regions  of  California,  the  constant  cry  is  for  more  cap- 
ital for  development,  and  as  fast  as  it  comes  it  is  being 
put  into  good  use,  —  use  that  will  soon  convert  land  that 
has  been  "  desert  "  for  centuries  into  orchards  of  beauty 
and  great  monetary  value. 

Adjacent  to  this  desert  country,  yet  so  situated  in 
relation  to  the  Colorado  River  as  never  to  be  actually 
a  part  of  it,  is  the  Palo  V^erde  Valley.  Twenty,  ten, 
years  ago  known  as  the  Blythe  ranch,  it  was  always 
regarded  as  an  oasis  of  rich  verdure.  When  finally  di- 
vided into  small  plots  and  put  on  the  market,  and  those 
adjacent  portions  of  government  land  opened  for  settle- 
ment, it  almost  immediately  sprang  into  prominence. 
The  town  of  Blythe,  with  smaller  settlements  as  Neigh- 
bors, Palo  Verde  and  Rannels,  were  founded,  a  first- 
class  canal  system  built  of  over  one  hundred  miles  in 
length,  for  distributing  water  from  the  Colorado  River, 
and  alfalfa  fields,  fruit  orchards,  asparagus,  sweet  pota- 
toes and  onion  beds,  many  acres  in  extent,  are  already 
in  profitable  operation. 

On  a  bench  above  the  Valley,  and  in  the  mountains 
beyond  lie  the  Palo  Verde  Mesa  and  the  Chuckawalla 
Valley,  both  capable  of  marvellous  development  as  soon 
as  water  is  placed  upon  them. 


CHAPTER    XX 

IN    THE    SMALLER    VALLEYS   OF    THE    NORTH    AND    SOUTH 

In  addition  to  the  two  great  central  valleys  of  Cali- 
fornia, the  Sacramento  and  the  San  Joaquin,  and  the 
remarkable  valleys  of  the  desert,  the  Imperial,  Coachella 
and  Antelope,  there  are  numberless  smaller  valleys 
throughout  the  State  deserving  more  than  passing  atten- 
tion. Only  a  few  of  the  more  distinctive,  however,  can 
be  mentioned. 

Between  the  Coast  Range  and  the  Sierra  Nevadas 
there  are  many  more  or  less  detached  ridges  of  moun- 
tains or  hills,  and  between  these,  lie  many  fertile  and 
beautiful  valleys.  In  Santa  Barbara  County  lie  the  Lom- 
poc,  Santa  Ynez,  Los  Alamos,  Santa  Maria,  Santa  Bar- 
bara and  Carpenteria  Valleys,  once  vast  cattle  ranges, 
now  rapidly  being  transformed  into  small  ranches,  where 
the  fig,  vine,  orange,  lemon,  peach,  almond,  guava. 
loquat  and  walnut  thrive.  The  climate  is  of  the  best 
the  southern  part  of  the  State  has  to  offer  and  the  ex- 
tension of  the  State  and  County  highways  has  prac- 
tically solved  the  chief  question  of  easy  transportation. 

Del  Norte  and  Humbolt  Counties  at  the  extreme 
northw^est  of  the  State  have  few  valleys,  as  yet,  of  com- 
mercial importance,  though  the  Eel  River  Valley,  in 
Humbolt,  has  begun  a  development  which  will  continue 
for  many  years  and  ultimately  make  it  an  empire  of 
wealth. 

315 


316     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Mendocino,  the  next  county  south  of  Humbolt,  how- 
ever, is  rich  in  fine  and  prosperous  valleys,  chief  of 
which  is  the  Ukiah,  eight  to  ten  miles  long,  and  from 
two  to  three  miles  wide,  and  with  a  population  already 
of  over  five  thousand.  Grain,  large  fruits,  vegetables, 
berries,  grapes  and  hops  all  do  well.  OfT  from  this  val- 
ley are  two  small  but  exceedingly  rich  valleys.  Redwood 
and  Coyote,  and  fourteen  miles  northeast  of  Ukiah  is 
Potter  Valley,  with  7,500  acres  of  fine  land  largely 
under  fruit  culture.  Further  still  to  the  north  is  the 
75,000  acre  Little  Lake  Valley,  where  the  celebrated 
Willits  potatoes  grow.  Anderson  Valley  is  known  for 
its  fine  apples,  and  Round  Valley,  the  largest  in  the 
county,  is  a  good  farming  section  where  there  are  also 
many  fine  Bartlett  pear  and  prune  orchards.  The  Sanel 
Valley,  along  the  Russian  River,  has  an  orange  belt,  and 
also  grows  fine  hops,  the  town  of  Hopland,  with  its 
nearly  one  thousand  inhabitants,  having  grown  up  and 
thrived  upon  that  profitable  crop. 

North  and  east,  on  the  Oregon  line,  is  Siskiyou 
County  with  fine  large  and  numberless  smaller  valleys. 
Strawberry  Valley  is  dominated  by  Mt.  Shasta,  the 
supreme  monarch  of  the  northern  Sierras,  and  the  many 
foothills  that  reach  down  in  every  direction  from  that 
sublime  peak,  divide  it  into  many  arms.  It  can  best 
be  likened  to  a  wide  and  sloping  gutter,  the  Sacramento 
River  flowing  through  the  channel,  and  the  slopes  vary- 
ing in  intensity.  The  elevation  varies  from  3,100  feet 
to  3,500  feet  above  sea  level,  and  many  fruits  and  vege- 
tables as  well  as  forage  grasses  thrive  abundantly. 
Squaw  and  Butte  Valleys  are  both  extensive,  and  at 
present  have  much  uncut  timber,  but  experience  has 
demonstrated  that  both  are  good  fruit  and  vegetable 
regions,  as  is  also  Shasta  Valley,  thirty-five  miles  long 


In  the  Smaller  Valleys  317 

and  eighteen  wide  and  containing  about  four  hundred 
thousand  acres.  Half  of  this  is  already  profitably 
farmed,  while  the  rest  is  sloping  foothill  which,  in  time, 
will  all  be  planted  out  to  fruit. 

Scott  Valley,  once  a  great  lake,  now  encloses  about 
a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres  of  fine  arable  land, 
and  is  both  irrigated  and  drained  by  the  stream  that 
once  fed  the  prehistoric  lake,  filled  it  up  with  sand  and 
silt  and  thus  destroyed  it.  Though  nearer  to  the  ocean 
than  Shasta  Valley  and  generally  subjected  to  its  influ- 
ence, it  is  more  protected  from  wintry  winds,  and  there- 
fore is  not  an  undesirable  place  of  residence,  surrounded 
as  it  is  by  majestic  mountains. 

Modoc  County  lies  at  the  extreme  northeastern  boun- 
dary of  the  State.  With  an  area  as  large  as  that  of  the 
State  of  Connecticut  it  has  many  valleys  within  its  con- 
fines, the  chief  of  which  is  Surprise  Valley,  sixty  miles 
long,  wath  a  population  of  upwards  of  'three  thousand 
people.  Then  there  are  the  Pitt  River  Valley,  in  which 
is  Alturas,  the  county  seat.  South  Fork,  Big,  Little  Hot 
Springs,  Jess  and  many  other  valleys,  all  of  greater  or 
lesser  importance. 

South  of  Modoc  is  Lassen  County,  in  which  are  sev- 
eral large  and  prosperous  valleys,  chief  of  which  is  the 
Honey  Lake  Valley.  Here  alfalfa  and  fine  fruit,  espe- 
cially apples  grow  in  abundance,  and  now  that  the  re- 
gion has  good  railway  service  its  development  will  grow 
apace  with  the  rest  of  California. 

Trinity  County  has  several  charming  valleys  located 
betw^een  its  many  mountain  ranges.  Indeed  the  time 
will  come  when  these  valleys  will  be  chosen  as  home 
locations  by  people  who  appreciate  their  majestic  and 
picturesque  environments.  Chief  of  these  are  the  Hay- 
fork, Hyampom,  Trinity,  Mad  River  and  Hetten  Val- 


318     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

leys,   where  everything  that  grows  in  the  Sacramento 
Valley  does  equally  well. 

Adjoining  Trinity  is  Shasta  County,  which  is  seamed 
with  valleys  in  every  direction.  The  most  important 
are  Happy  and  Hot  Creek  Valleys,  the  former  being 
essentially  a  fruit-growing  section,  where  Elberta 
peaches  thrive  abundantly,  and  where  lemons  also  grow- 
well.  The  olive  crops  of  this  valley  have  made  it  famous 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  for  here  is  located  a 
i20-acre  grove  of  the  Ehmann  Olive  Company  of  Oro- 
ville.  Hot  Creek  and  the  Fall  River  Valleys  are  fine 
alfalfa  regions  and  thousands  of  acres  still  remain  open 
for  development. 

From  the  romantic  and  scenic  standpoint  Shasta 
County  contains  many  of  the  most  picturesque  spots  in 
the  State.  The  McCloud  River  is  a  paradise  for  the 
angler,  and  the  Lava  Beds,  Mt.  Lassen,  Black  Butte, 
Burney  Falls,  and  a  score  of  other  natural  wonders  will 
ultimately  attract  their  millions  of  fascinated  travellers. 

All  of  what  might  l^e  termed  the  Sierran  Counties  — 
counties  in  which  a  portion  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Range 
is  located  —  possess  picturesque  and  fertile  valleys. 
Many  of  these  have  been  found  especially  adapted  for 
apple  and  cherry  culture,  and  profitable  crops  are  annu- 
ally being  raised.  They  also  afford  fine  pasture  for 
stock  and  sheep  in  the  summer  months.  These  counties 
reach  from  Plumas  on  the  north  to  Liyo  and  Kern  on 
the  south,  a  distance  of  five  hundred  or  more  miles, 
hence  it  must  be  expected  that  they  vary  marvellously 
in  climate,  scenery  and  agricultural  and  horticultural 
advantages. 

Placer  County,  for  instance,  has  a  large  area  of  foot- 
hill country,  subjected  to  the  influences  of  the  Sacra- 
mento Valley,  hence  it  grows  fruit  of  great  variety  and 


In  the  Smaller  Valleys  319 

wonderfully  fine  flavour  and  in  quantities  not  surpassed 
by  any  county  in  the  south. 

Mariposa  and  Madera  Counties  are  similarly  located 
in  regard  to  the  Sierras  and  the  San  Joaquin  Valley, 
and  in  the  former  county,  the  Jerseydale  region  lying 
between  two  thousand  to  four  thousand  feet  altitude 
has  proven  itself  one  of  the  finest  mountain  apple  sec- 
tions of  the  State,  one  Spitzenburg  tree  having  pro- 
duced thirty-two  boxes  in  a  single  season,  and  a  Bald- 
win, thirty-seven  boxes.  These,  of  course,  are  excep- 
tional cases,  but  they  show  what  can  be  done. 

The  Napa  Valley  is  one  of  the  garden  spots  of  the 
world.  Its  vineyards  and  orchards  are  the  pride  and 
glory  of  all  who  see  them.  There  are  roads  that  wind 
along  between  these  richly  cultivated  areas,  and  other 
roads,  clinging  to  the  rugged  mountain  sides,  which 
look  down  upon  them,  with,  here  and  there,  glimpses 
of  patches  of  vineyard  of  five,  ten,  fifty  acres,  far  up 
above,  rescued  from  wild  chaparral  or  forest  and  planted 
to  catch  the  most  sun. 

At  the  head  of  this  valley  Mt.  St.  Helena  stands  as 
a  proud  sentinel.  Stages  of  the  most  modern  type  still 
run  over  its  shoulders  from  Calistoga  to  the  picturesque 
Lake  County  beyond.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  describes 
both  the  drive  and  the  country  in  his  Silverado  Squat- 
ters, and  has  thus  added  the  charm  of  romance  to  its 
picturesqueness.  Near  the  town  of  St.  Helena  is  the 
St.  Helena  Sanitarium  and  the  home  of  Mrs.  Ellen  G. 
White,  who,  with  her  husband,  practically  founded  the 
church  of  the  Seventh  Day  Adventists  as  it  is  governed 
to-day.  Mrs.  White  was  also  the  inspiration  and  guide 
of  the  early  day  movement  toward  more  hygienic  liv- 
ing, and  the  treatment  of  disease  by  what  are  now  known 
as   the   Battle   Creek   Sanitarium  methods.      While   the 


320     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

development  of  these  methods  is  owing  to  the  genius 
of  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  the  superintendent,  the  germ  of 
them  began  with  Mrs.  White.  These  sanitariums  are 
to  be  found  in  every  country  of  the  civilized  world,  and 
most  of  them  are  specific  and  direct  tributes  to  her  power 
and  influence  as  an  organizer.  Every  Seventh  Day  Ad- 
ventist  in  the  w^orld  feels  the  influence  of  this  elderly 
lady  who  quietly  sits  in  her  room  overlooking  the  cul- 
tivated fields  of  the  Napa  Valley,  and  writes  out  what 
she  feels  are  the  intimations  of  God's  spirit,  to  be  given 
through  her  to  mankind.  This  remarkable  woman,  also, 
though  almost  entirely  self-educated,  has  written  and 
published  more  books  and  in  more  languages,  which 
circulate  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  written  works  of 
any  woman  of  history.  They  are  shipped  by  the  car- 
load. 

Then  the  Sonoma  Valley  in  Sonoma  County,  for  ever 
made  memorable  by  Jack  London  in  his  Valley  of  the 
Moon,  The  Iron  Heel,  Burning  Daylight,  and  others  of 
his  powerful  novels,  is  another  garden  and  glory  spot. 
Here  are  Santa  Rosa  and  Sevastopol,  where  Luther  Bur- 
bank,  by  grasping  Nature's  wonderful  secrets,  is  work- 
ing marvels  in  plants,  fruits  and  flowers.  The  roads 
are  fine  for  coaching  or  automobiling,  and  one  rides  for 
hours  through  refreshingly  green  vineyards  laden  with 
their  pale  green,  golden  green,  and  purple  treasure. 
Hills  on  either  side  are  covered  with  variegated  chapar- 
ral, where  quail  are  piping,  meadow-larks  are  bubbling 
over  with  song,  and  mocking-birds  even  at  night  carol 
of  the  joy  of  living. 

One  can  ride  back  and  forth  half  a  dozen  ways  in 
Sonoma  Valley,  and  then  cross  over  from  Santa  Rosa 
and  across  the  hills  to  Calistoga  in  Napa  Valley.  Or, 
keeping  up   north,   to   the  left  one  enters  the   Russian 


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In  the  Smaller  Valleys  321 

River  Valley,  past  the  noted  Asti  vineyards  to  Clover- 
dale. 

In  this  latter  valley  are  a  score  of  vacation  resorts, 
where  people  from  San  Francisco  and  all  the  other 
cities,  inland  and  coast,  come  to  play.  Swimming,  boat- 
ing, fishing,  hunting,  tramps,  mountain  climbing,  loafing 
—  what  a  joy  it  is  to  rest  in  the  open  and  renew  one's 
youth.  Then,  too,  near  Monte  Rio,  is  the  celebrated 
Redwood  Grove  of  the  Bohemian  Club.  This  club  was 
founded  early  in  the  modern  history  of  San  Francisco 
by  a  few  of  the  literary  and  artistic  spirits  that  found 
themselves  there  soon  after  the  first  great  decline  of 
the  gold  excitement  of  1849.  Slowly  the  club  grew  in 
power  and  influence.  Its  members  were  all  individual- 
ists. They  cared  nothing  for  precedent  or  other  men's 
ways  of  doing  things,  hence  in  their  annual  celebrations 
they  struck  peculiar  and  striking  notes  of  fun  and  enter- 
tainment that  made  an  invitation  eagerly  sought  after. 
In  time  they  bought  the  Bohemian  Grove,  a  magnificent 
forest  of  redwood  giant  trees,  some  seventy-five  miles 
from  the  City  of  the  Golden  Gate,  and  now  for  the  past 
thirteen  years  have  conducted  an  open-air  play,  espe- 
cially written  for  the  Bohemian  Jinks  by  one  of  their 
own  members,  the  music  as  well  as  the  book,  the  cos- 
tumes, staging  and  all  the  acting  done  within  their  own 
ranks,  until  it  has  become  as  distinct  and  recognized 
an  event  in  the  dramatic  world,  as  the  Passion  Play  of 
Oberammergau  is  in  the  religious  world.  The  first  real 
"  Grove-Play,"  as  these  Midsummer  Jinks  are  now 
called,  was  given  in  1902.  It  was  written  by  Charles 
K.  Field,  now  the  Editor  of  The  Sunset  Magazine,  and 
the  music  was  written  by  Joseph  D.  Redding,  the  au- 
thor of  the  well-known  American  opera  Natoma. 
George  Sterling,  the  poet  of  whom  Joaquin  Miller  said : 


322     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

"  He  is  the  greatest  imaginative  poet  since  Dante," 
wrote  for  one  Jinks  The  Triumph  of  Bohemia,  and  Her- 
man Scheffauer,  The  Sons  of  Baldur.  Will  Irwin's  con- 
tribution was  The  Hamadryads;    a  Masque  of  Apollo. 

The  performance  always  begins  at  nine  o'clock  at 
night.  Rows  of  redwood  logs  are  used  for  seats.  The 
stage  has  no  scenery  except  that  supplied  by  Nature. 
The  only  lights  are  the  few  needed  by  the  orchestra. 
About  six  to  seven  hundred  spectators  are  present.  The 
stage  is  between  two  gigantic  trees,  the  tops  of  which 
lose  themselves  in  the  darkness  of  the  heavens  above. 
''  On  all  sides,"  writes  one  who  knows,^  "  great  trunks 
—  ten,  fifteen  feet  in  diameter,  two  hundred,  three  hun- 
dred feet  in  height  —  tower  aloft.  At  the  back  of  the 
stage  is  an  abrupt  hillside  covered  with  a  dense  growth 
of  shrubs  and  small  trees,  picked  out  here  and  there  with 
the  shafts  of  redwood.  Amid  the  tangle  of  brake  and 
brush,  the  trail,  which  the  eye  can  scarcely  see  by  day, 
winds  its  devious  course. 

"  Everything  is  tuned  to  the  occasion  —  the  hush  and 
the  darkness,  the  majesty  of  the  ancient  trees,  the  subtle 
perfumes  of  the  forest  in  the  soft  night  air.  It  is  the 
atmosphere  of  poetry ;   it  is  beauty,  peace.   .  .  ." 

Who  is  there  that  cannot  imagine  a  powerful  play, 
given  by  men  full  of  the  spirit  of  California,  under  such 
conditions?  It  is  stirring  to  the  senses,  but  immeasur- 
ably more  so  to  the  imagination,  and  one  feels  that 
here,  though  with  the  help  of  some  important  modern 
adjuncts,  he  can  see  early  man,  in  the  dawning  of  the 
dramatic  instinct,  rendering  his  first  plays. 

And  it  must  be  remembered  that  neither  professional- 
ism nor  publicity  has  touched  these  Grove-performances 
with  their  tainting  hands.     None  but  members  and  those 

'  The  Bohemian  Jinks,  by  Porter  Garnett. 


In  the  Smaller  Valleys  323 

holding  visitors'  cards  can  possibly  gain  admittance,  and 
these  latter  must  be  non-residents  of  California.  Tickets 
cannot  be  purchased  at  any  price,  and  hence,  the  com- 
positions, both  literary  and  musical,  are  written  solely 
for  the  enjoyment  of  the  Club  and  its  visitors.  In  this 
the  Grove-play  is  unique  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
though  the  past  year  or  two  the  demand  has  been  so 
insistent,  that  some  portions  of  the  play  have  been  staged 
and  presented  on  the  return  of  the  Club  performers  to 
San  Francisco. 

Nearer  to  the  Golden  Gate  than  the  Sonoma  and  Rus- 
sian Valleys  is  the  Petaluma  Valley,  the  home  of  the 
industrious  hen.  Petaluma  claims  about  three  million 
biddies,  faithfully  laying  eggs  daily,  and  making  at  least 
a  dollar  a  year  profit  for  their  owners.  "  Hen  "  ranches 
abound  on  every  hand,  and  the  crowing  of  the  festive 
rooster  is  the  chief  sound  heard  in  the  land.  Yet  it  is 
an  interesting  valley  to  visit  and  those  who  live  there 
find  life  profitable  in  more  ways  than  one. 

In  San  Francisco  one  will  often  hear  Mill  Valley 
referred  to.  This  is  just  across  the  bay,  in  Marin 
County,  and  is  the  gateway  to  the  Muir  Woods  and 
the  Mt.  Tamalpais  Railway.  It  is  a  gloriously  beautiful, 
riotously  enchanting  section  of  country  homes,  built  on 
the  hillsides  among  the  primitive  trees  that  used  to  shel- 
ter the  Indians. 

Not  far  away  is  San  Rafael  Valley,  one  of  a  series 
of  sheltered  valleys,  all  of  which  have  been  preempted 
by  San  Franciscans  for  their  surburban  homes.  Every- 
thing is  beautiful,  flower-embowered,  well  cared  for,  yet 
there  is  little  of  the  agricultural  going  on.  Several  of 
the  finest  homes  of  the  State  are  to  be  found  here,  rival- 
ling in  charm  those  of  the  San  Gabriel  Valley  in  the 
south. 


324     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

And  thus  might  I  write  by  the  score  of  pages  of  the 
valleys  of  California.  Perhaps  I  ought  just  to  refer 
to  one  county  in  the  south,  —  that  of  San  Diego,  — 
for  there  are  many  charming  and  alluring  valleys 
"  South  of  Tehachipi."  El  Cajon  Valley  —  pronounced 
Ca-hone  —  has  often  been  termed  by  world-travellers 
"  one  of  the  rarely  beautiful  valleys  of  the  world,"  lies 
about  fifteen  miles  northeast  of  San  Diego.  It  is  now 
richly  cultured,  irrigation  having  been  the  "  waver  of 
the  magic  wand."  Here  Beatrice  Harraden,  author  of 
the  much  discussed  Ships  that  Pass  in  the  Night,  used 
to  come  and  reside  with  English  friends,  Avhile  she 
gained  new  strength  to  return  to  her  literary  work. 
Indeed  several  of  her  shorter  novels,  and  one  of  her 
books  were  written  here. 

Thirty-four  miles  north  of  San  Diego  is  the  Escondido 
Valley,  —  pronounced  Es  -  kon  -  deed  -  o,  —  commonly 
known  as  the  "  Sun-kissed  Vale."  In  the  "  Straw  Hat 
Parade  "  in  San  Diego,  in  February,  19 14,  appeared  an 
automobile,  laden  with  bright,  cheery,  rosy-cheeked 
maidens  from  the  Escondido  High  School.  On  each 
side  of  the  car  the  thrifty-minded  Chamber  of  Commerce 
had  placed  a  painted  banner  with  flaring  letters,  — 


ESCONDIDO'S 

SUN    KISSED    VALE 


Some  waggish  lads  of  the  High  School,  "  unbe- 
knownst "  to  their  elders,  succeeded  in  changing  the 
lettering  somewhat,  and  the  girls,  with  their  escorts 
of  staid  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  city  In  the  machine 
ahead,  were  considerably  surprised  at  the  laughter  and 
cheers  with  which  they  were  greeted,  until  some  one 
called  their  attention  to  their  revised  slogan,  — 


In  the  Smaller  Valleys  325 


ESCONDIDO'S 
UN    KISSED    GIRLS 


Escondido  is  especially  adapted  for  the  growth  of 
grapes,  and  both  for  table  and  raisins  their  quality  is 
unsurpassed.  Like  Napa,  Sonoma,  and  the  San  Joaquin 
Valleys  Escondido  is  a  field  of  glowing  green  when  the 
vineyards  are  all  wearing  their  new  summer  dresses, 
and  thousands  each  year  go  to  the  "  Sunkissed  Vale  " 
to  enjoy  the  Grape  Festival  which  has  now  become  an 
annual  event. 

The  San  Luis  Rey  Valley  receives  its  name  from  the 
old  Franciscan  Mission,  dedicated  to  Saint  Louis,  the 
king,  and  this,  and  the  Rancho  Guajome  —  not  pro- 
nounced as  it  is  spelled,  but  Gwa-ho-meh  —  where  Helen 
Hunt  Jackson  used  to  visit,  when  she  was  preparing  to 
write  her  Indian  romance,  Ramona,  are  two  places  of 
perennial  interest  to  the  tourist.  A.  little  further  along 
is  Pamoosa  Canyon,  where  the  Frazee  Castle  is  built 
on  the  chaparral-clad  slopes,  and  where  Lark  Ellen  — 
Ellen  Beach  Yaw  —  one  of  California's  world-famed 
singers  —  makes  her  summer  retreat. 

The  Poway  and  Alpine  Valleys  are  northeast  and  east 
of  San  Diego,  the  former  a  grape-growing  section,  and 
made  romantic  with  memories  of  the  tribes  of  Indians 
that  used  to  live  here  from  time  immemorial.  The  lat- 
ter valley,  as  its  name  implies,  is  in  the  hills.  It  is  on 
the  way  between  the  ocean  and  the  desert,  and  it  is 
therefore  a  noted  winter  and  summer  resort,  combining 
in  a  peculiar  manner  the  charms  and  advantages  of 
mountain,  desert  and  sea.  San  Diego  possesses  many 
places  of  interest,  and  one  has  a  peculiar  attraction  in 


326     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

that  it  is  the  first  "  Little  Landers  "  Colony  in  America. 
The  plan  was  devised  by  William  E.  Smythe,  one  of 
the  fathers  of  modern  irrigation  in  America.  It  is  based 
upon  intensive  cultivation  of  the  soil,  the  making  of  a 
living  upon  "  little  land,"  and  cooperative  management 
of  all  buying  and  marketing,  and  the  beautification  of 
the  town,  all  the  utilities  of  which  are  conjointly  owned. 


CHAPTER    XXI 

THE    FORESTS    OF    CALIFORNIA 

California  is  a  large  State.  Take  England,  Scot- 
land, Ireland  and  Wales,  and  add  to  them  Maine,  Dela- 
ware and  Rhode  Island ;  place  them  down  in  California 
and  there  would  still  be  six  hundred  square  miles  left 
in  which  to  play  baseball  or  golf. 

Massachusetts  has  8,315  square  miles;  Delaware, 
2,050;  Maine,  33,040;  New  Jersey,  7,815;  Connecti- 
cut, 4,990;  Rhode  Island,  1,250;  New  York,  49,170; 
Vermont,  9,565;  Ohio,  41,060.  All  these  States  could 
be  "  scripped  "  in  California,  with  a  thousand  square 
miles  to  spare,  for  it  has  an  area  of  158,360  square  miles. 

In  this  vast  area  there  are  set  apart  by  the  National 
Government  twenty-one  National  Forests,  which  I 
should  say,  at  a  mere  guess,  cover  from  one-fourth  to 
one-fifth  of  the  entire  State.  ,  Beginning  on  the  north 
and  coming  south  there  are  Modoc,  Klamath,  Shasta, 
Siskiyou,  Trinity,  Lassen,  Plumas,  Tahoe,  El  Dorado, 
California,  Mono,  Stanislaus,  Yosemite,  Inyo,  Sierra, 
Monterey,  Santa  Barbara.  Sequoia,  Kern,  Angeles  and 
Cleveland  Forests.  Each  of  these  has  its  own  individual 
charm  and  personal  characteristics.  For  instance,  Mon- 
terey is  as  different  from  Mono,  as  Vermont  is  from 
Florida,  while  Klamath  has  few.  if  any,  points  in  com- 
mon with  Cleveland. 

To  attempt,  therefore,  even  a  cursory  survey  of  these 

327 


328     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

forests  would  be  impracticable  in  these  pages.  This  is 
merely  a  suggestive  chapter,  throwing  out  a  few  hints 
as  to  what  the  visitor  can  find  in  them.  The  subject  is 
romantic  and  beautiful  enough  to  demand  prolonged 
study,  and  health  and  inspiration  will  be  found  in  the 
doing  of  it. 

These  National  Forests  are  set  aside  by  presidential 
proclamation  or  legislative  enactment  to  preserve  the 
watersheds  of  the  nation,  to  conserve  the  water  supply 
and  the  timber  for  all  time.  The  latter  can  be  conserved 
only  by  wise  and  scientific  forestry,  the  cutting  of  such 
timber  as  is  "  ripe,"  with  a  simultaneous  or  prior  plant- 
ing of  equal  areas  for  future  growth.  It  was  not  until 
Roosevelt's  presidency  that  these  conservation  needs  of 
the  nation  were  seriously  and  earnestly  considered,  and 
to  him  and  Gifford  Pinchot  the  practical  inauguration 
and  early  working  out  of  this  most  useful  of  national 
plans  is  owing. 

Since  that  day  there  have  sprung  up  new  professions 
in  the  United  States  —  new  in  the  sense  that  they  now 
include  a  small  army  of  men,  while  prior  to  that  time 
there  were  but  few  in  the  nation  who  knew  anything 
of  them.  These  professions  are  Forestry  and  Forest 
Ranging.  The  two  materially  overlap,  yet  each  is  dis- 
tinct in  itself.  The  Forester  must  understand  trees  and 
their  diseases  and  growth,  their  timber  value,  and  every- 
thing that  goes  with  the  business  of  lumbering.  He 
must  know  how  to  gather  seeds  and  plant  them,  so  as 
to  secure  new  growth  where  old  trees  are  to  be  cut  out. 
He  must  understand  how  to  foster  natural  growths,  and 
yet  take  away  the  surplus  and  unnecessary  young  trees 
that  would  prevent  others  from  maturing  for  lumber, 
and  at  the  same  time  practically  understand  how  forests 
conserve  the   snow   and  water  supply.      He  must  be  a 


The  Forests  of  California  329 

wise  fire-fighter  and  know  how  to  protect  the  forest  in 
his  care   from  this   dangerous  and  destructive  element. 

To  the  Ranger  much  of  the  detail  of  this  work  is 
committed,  wuth  the  added  responsibilities  of  watching 
out  that  sheep  and  cattle  do  not  over-run  the  ranges  of 
the  forest  and  destroy  the  natural  grasses.  The  pests 
and  parasites  that  injure  trees  must  be  located  and  over- 
come, whether  of  vegetable  or  animal  origin,  and  vigi- 
lance exercised  to  see  that  the  laws  for  the  public  use 
of  the  National  Forest  are  known  and  observed. 

To  know'  and  enjoy  the  trees  of  the  various  Cali- 
fornia forests  is  a  delightful  study,  and  the  books  of 
John  Muir,  W.  L.  Jepson,  J.  Smeaton  Chase  and  J.  G. 
Lemmon,  together  with  the  learned  and  comprehensive 
volumes  published  by  the  Forestry  service,  are  all  avail- 
able for  that  purpose.  There  are  a  few  points,  however, 
that  attention  may  here  be  called  to.  For  instance  the 
cypresses  of  the  Monterey  Forest,  on  the  world-famed 
"  Seventeen  Mile  Drive "  of  Hotel  Del  Monte,  are 
found  practically  nowhere  else  on  the  American  Con- 
tinent. They  are  unique  here.  The  Cereus  gigantens  is 
found  rarely  in  California,  though  very  common  in 
Arizona.  Those  in  California  are  on  the  banks  of  the 
Colorado  River  or  not  far  away.  The  Yucca  Mohavi- 
ensis,  or  Joshua  tree,  is  a  rare  product  of  the  Mohave 
Desert,  while  the  Fan-palm  (neo-lVashingtonia  filifera) 
finds  its  native  habitat  on  the  Colorado  Desert  near  to 
Palm  Springs. 

There  are  two  species  of  California's  "  Big  Trees," 
—  the  Sequoia  Gigantea  and  the  Sequoia  Sempervirens. 
To  distinguish  them  it  is  growing  customary  to  speak 
of  the  former  as  Sequoias,  the  latter  as  Redwoods.  Of 
course  they  are  both  redwoods,  their  bark  is  very  much 
the    same   as    are   also   their   exquisite   lace-like    leaves. 


330     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Professor  W.  L.  Jepson,  of  the  State  University,  in  his 
recently  published  masterly  work,  The  Sylva  of  Cali- 
fornia, gives  interesting  descriptions,  which  also  note 
the  differences  between  the  species. 

A  grove  of  these  redwoods,  giving  the  name  to  a 
mountain.  Redwood  Mountain,  is  to  be  found  up  above 
Hume,  towards  King's  River.  This  highly-favoured 
spot  can  be  reached  from  Visalia  or  when  one  visits  the 
Grant  National  Park.  One  passes  Hume  Lake,  follow- 
ing along  its  picturesque  feeder.  Ten  Mile  Creek,  which 
conveys  the  melted  snows  of  the  mountain  heights  down 
to  the  placid-faced  lake.  High  on  the  opposite  moun- 
tain-side logging-camps  appear,  where  these  centuries- 
old  giants  are  being  axed  and  sawed  down,  denuded  of 
their  branches,  cut  into  appropriate  lengths,  and  then 
"  snaked  "  to  the  saw-mill,  where  the  relentless  teeth 
of  the  never-still  band-saw  tear  them  apart  into  planks, 
timbers  and  scantlings. 

Look  up  into  the  blue  vault  above.  How  perfectly 
that  harmonizes  with  the  varied  green  of  the  trees,  and 
the  red  and  brown,  gray  and  black  of  the  trunks.  Here, 
at  five  thousand  feet  elevation,  yellow  pines  abound, 
then  higher  still  sugar  pines,  white  fir  and  silver  fir. 
And  who  can  conceive  the  glory  and  stateliness,  the 
beauty  and  delicacy  of  avenues  of  these  most  graceful 
of  mountain  trees?  Well  may  visitors  and  strangers 
rave  over  them,  for  even  unimpressionable  cowboys, 
Italian  lumbermen  and  business-like  forest  rangers  learn 
to  love  them  with  a  devotion  that  never  tires. 

By  and  by  logging-camps  are  left  behind,  and  save 
for  an  occasional  shingle-making  camp  the  forest  is  un- 
touched. How  good  it  seems  to  find  some  places  where 
the  devastating  hand  of  man  has  not  yet  reached.  It 
is  a  steady  uphill  climb  to  the  summit  of  the  ridge,  and 


The  Forests  of  California  831 

then  at  Quail  Flat  Redwood  Mountain  comes  into  sight. 
Directly  before  us  it  rises,  a  rounded  monarch,  a  vast 
green  dome,  for  redwoods  completely  cover  it. 

There  are  wonderful  domes  to  some  of  the  churches 
and  temples  of  Europe.  Sir  Christopher  Wren's  ge- 
nius is  enshrined  in  St.  Paul's  in  London,  and  Michael 
Angelo's  in  St.  Peter's  at  Rome.  Men  stand  entranced 
before  Santa  Sophia  in  Constantinople,  the  Mosque  of 
Omar  in  Jerusalem,  and  the  Taj  Mahal  at  Agra.  But 
here  is  Nature's  own  handiwork,  and  on  a  scale  of  mag- 
nificence, grandeur  and  majesty  never  conceived,  aye, 
and  never  possible,  to  mere  man.  Aisle  after  aisle  of 
stately  columns  of  rich,  living,  glowing  red.  Marble 
and  onyx  are  beautiful,  and  lapis-lazuli  and  jasper  are 
glorious  in  their  colourful  splendour,  but  they  are  dead. 
Here  in  the  redwood  is  a  radiant,  joyous,  glowing  life, 
with  an  ever-changing  gamut  of  colour  upon  which  sun- 
shine and  shadow  play  continuously  like  the  magicians 
they  are. 

Near  Boulder  Creek,  the  State  Forest  preserves  for 
ever  a  number  of  giant  redwoods  in  their  natural  habitat. 
Unlike  their  cousins,  the  Gigantea,  they  need  to  be  near 
the  sea,  and  they  are  never  found  more  than  twenty 
to  fifty  miles  away  from  the  ocean.  They  occur  only 
in  eight  California  Counties,  Humbolt,  Mendocino. 
Sonoma,  Marin,  San  Mateo,  Santa  Cruz,  Monterey  and 
San  Luis  Obispo.  There  is  a  private  grove  at  Felton, 
and  the  big  tree,  the  tall  tree,  from  which  Palo  Alto 
gains  its  name,  is  a  solitary  redwood  by  the  railway 
track. 

In  speaking  of  the  trees  of  California  there  are  a 
thousand  spots  that  should  be  visited,  each  with  its  own 
objects  of  peculiar  attraction,  but  among  others  that 
notably  stand  out  is  the  wild  park  given  to  the  City  of 


332     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Chico,  in  Butte  County,  by  Mrs.  Annie  E.  K.  Bidwell, 
the  wife  of  General  Bidwell.  This  wonderful  natural 
park  follows  the  course  of  the  mountain  stream  for  a 
score  or  more  of  miles.  Fine  driveways  have  been  made 
through  it,  and  the  hundreds  of  live-oaks,  sycamores, 
cottonwoods,  willows  and  other  trees,  accompanied  by 
the  cheery  voice  of  the  rippling  stream,  and  festooned  by 
thousands  of  vines  in  the  richness  of  their  flowering,  and 
with  the  open  spaces  and  shady  spots  carpeted  with  an 
infinitude  of  flowers,  make  it  one  of  the  rarest  and  most 
delightful  drives  in  the  country. 

Near  it,  too,  on  the  Chico  Rancho,  is  the  Joseph 
if  Hooker  Oak,  the  largest  live-oak  in  the  known  world. 
Careful  measurement  and  computation  show  that  seven 
thousand  persons  could  stand  under  its  shadow  when 
the  sun's  rays  were  vertical,  and  these  figures  were  veri- 
fied by  Gen'l  W.  T.  Sherman  when  he  and  President  and 
Mrs.  Hayes  visited  it.  It  is  105  feet  high,  its  trunk 
25  7-10  feet  at  the  ground,  and  28  4-10  at  a  height  of 
eight  feet;  its  longest  limbs  on  the  south  side  are  loi 
and  105  feet,  and  the  circumference  of  circle  outside  of 
branches  446  feet.  Allowing  two  square  feet  for  every 
person  it  is  estimated  that  7,885  might  stand  beneath 
the  tree.  It  received  its  name  from  the  distinguished 
American  botanist.  Dr.  C.  C.  Parry,  who  is  authority 
for  the  statement  made  by  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  that  it 
is  the  largest  oak  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER    XXII 

THE    FLOWERS    OF    CALIFORNIA 

Poets  have  sung  their  sweetest  songs,  orators  have 
indulged  in  their  highest  flights  of  brilliant  rhetoric, 
colour  photographers  have  excelled  themselves  in  their 
endeavours,  artists  have  vied  with  each  other  in  glowing 
canvases,  simply  to  do  justice  to  the  wealth  of  flowers 
that  bloom  in  the  gardens  and  in  the  wilds  of  California! 
Pasadena's  Tournament  of  Roses  is  an  annual  tribute 
to  the  midwinter  growth  of  flow^ers  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  State.  Saratoga's  Blossom  Carnival  is  an  equally 
fervid  tribute  to  the  plethora  of  blossoms  found  in  the 
one  valley,  that  of  the  Santa  Clara,  when  the  prune 
trees  are  in  bloom.  Van  Nuys  has  its  Poppy  Festival. 
Sierra  Madre  its  Flower  Carnival,  Bishop  its  Harvest 
Festival,  Saint  Helena  its  Vintage  Festival,  Watsonville 
its  Apple  Carnival,  Oroville  its  Orange  Festival,  and 
many  other  communities  their  especial  fetes,  at  all  of 
which  myriads  of  flowers  are  used. 

Santa  Cruz  justly  boasts  of  its  flower  growths.  Every 
home,  even  the  most  humble,  may  have  its  flowers  in 
such  profusion  and  of  such  a  character  as  to  excite  the 
envy  of  a  prince  in  a  less  favoured  clime.  Wistaria, 
clematis,  and  smilax  climbers  grow  in  such  extravagance 
as  to  render  the  man  who  attempts  to  describe  them 
liable  to  serious  charges  of  mendacity.  Geraniums  and 
pelargoniums  are  grown  in  hedges,  ten,  twelve  feet  in 
height,  or  over  trellises  and  porches.     So  also  with  the 

333 


334     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

heliotrope  and  fuchsia.  They  here  become  trees  and 
attain  a  height  of  twenty,  thirty,  forty  and  more  feet. 

Roses  are  found  by  the  million  and  into  the  hundreds 
of  varieties,  and  calla  lilies,  freesias,  narcissus,  gladiolus, 
amaryllis  and  iris  grow  by  the  acre,  and  some  of  them 
can  be  supplied  by  the  thousands  of  dozens  almost 
throughout  the  whole  year. 

San  Luis  Obispo,  Santa  Barbara,  Los  Angeles, 
Orange,  San  Diego  and  a  score  other  counties  in  the 
State  can  truthfully  make  the  same  kind  of  claim,  with 
a  few  variations  for  climate  and  soil.  Indeed  Santa 
Barbara  and  Montecito  are  as  emphatic  in  their  claims 
for  recognition  as  any  place  well  can  be,  for  the  South- 
ern Pacific  trains  pass  through  acres  which  are  as  richly 
flowered  as  space  will  allow.  The  Potter  Hotel  at  Santa 
Barbara  is  world-famed  for  its  flowers,  but  equally  so 
is  the  Hotel  del  Coronado,  the  Raymond  at  Pasadena 
and  Hotel  del  Monte.  Indeed  the  latter,  in  the  variety 
of  its  flowers  is  not  surpassed  in  California,  nor,  I  ven- 
ture to  say,  in  any  open-air  garden  in  the  world.  It 
publishes  a  bulky  catalogue  of  its  flowers,  so  astonishing 
is  the  variety  and  so  great  the  demand  for  knowledge 
concerning  them. 

Though  the  gamut  of  flowers  changes  somewhat  on 
going  north  the  gardens  are  just  as  profusely  coloured 
and  the  hillsides  as  gorgeously  decked  in  Marin,  Contra 
Costa,  Napa,  Sonoma  and  all  the  counties  of  the  north, 
and  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  Valleys  as  in  the 
better-known  (perhaps  because  better  advertised)  flower 
embowered  south. 

Indeed  it  is  almost  impossible  for  one  to  go  anywhere 
in  California,  from  the  snowy  heights  of  Shasta  and 
Whitney  to  the  alkali  flats  of  the  Mohave  and  Colorado 
Deserts,  from  the  sea-sh-ore  to  the  foot  of  the  Sierras 


The  Flowers  of  California  335 

on  Nevada's  boundary,  without,  at  some  time  of  the 
year,  being  entranced  by  the  multitude  of  flowers  that 
adorn  the  landscapes. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  it  is  in  California  that 
Luther  Burbank  has  done  such  wonderful  things  in  the 
improvement  of  flowers  and  in  the  changes  that  he  has 
brought  about  in  them.  The  Shasta  daisy  and  the 
gorgeous  amaryllis  are  two  of  the  well-known  products 
of  his  genius  and  skill. 

But  it  is  not  so  nry^h  of  the  ordinary  and  fairly  well- 
known  cultivated  flowers  that  T  here  wish  to  speak. 
California  is  rich  in  its  wild  flowers  to  a  degree  unknown 
to  all  except  those  who  are  nature  lovers  or  botanists, 
and  it  is  to  the  romance  and  beauty  of  these  wild  treas- 
ures of  mountain,  desert,  foothill,  canyon  and  island 
that  I  wish  to  devote  this  chapter. 

Few  people  are  aware  that  the  heather  grows  richly 
in  California.  In  the  High  Sierras  there  are  acres  of 
it.  One  of  the  lakes  of  the  Tahoe  region  is  named 
Kalmia,  after  one  of  the  heathers.  It  seems  to  love 
the  rvigged  edges  of  the  glacial  lakes,  and  well  do  I 
remember  the  delight  with  which  I  found  my  first  speci- 
mens. Shy  and  retiring,  dainty  and  exquisite,  they  are 
the  violets  of  the  mountains,  but  how  they  thrill  the 
heart  with  memories,  and  warm  one  through  and 
through  with  their  gentle  loveliness. 

In  all  of  Muir's  writings  are  constant  touches  of 
exquisite  description  of  the  delicate  or  richly  flaunting 
glories  of  the  mountain  flowers.  Such  as :  "  Here  [in 
Bloody  Canyon]  for  the  first  time  I  met  the  Arctic 
daisies  in  all  their  perfection  of  pure  spirituality,  — 
gentle  mountaineers,  face  to  face  with  the  frosty  sky, 
kept  safe  and  warm  by  a  thousand  miracles.  I  leaped 
lightly  from  rock  to  rock,  glorying  in  the  eternal  fresh- 


336     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ness  and  sufficiency  of  nature,  and  in  the  rugged  ten- 
derness with  which  she  nurtures  her  mountain  darhngs 
in  the  very  homes  and  fountains  of  storms." 

Later :  "  I  found  the  so-called  Mono  Desert,  like  the 
rye-field,  in  a  high  state  of  natural  cultivation  with  the 
wild  rose  and  the  delicate  pink-flowered  abronia;  and 
innumerable  erigerons,  gilias,  phloxes,  poppies  and  bush- 
compositae,  growing  not  only  along  stream-banks,  but 
out  in  the  hot  sand  and  ashes  in  openings  among  the 
sage-brush,  and  even  in  the  craters  of  the  highest  vol- 
canoes, cheering  the  gray  wilderness  with  their  rosy 
bloom,  and  literally  giving  beauty  for  ashes." 

But  while  Muir  writes  thus  generally  of  the  Sierran 
flowers,  he  can  write  equally  well  of  individual  varieties. 
And  of  these  there  are  many  in  our  mountains.  For 
instance,  between  Lassen's  Butte,  Lake  Tahoe  and  the 
Yosemite  the  careful  seeker  may  find  a  shy,  retiring, 
small  flower,  rare  even  to  the  botanist.  It  is  the  Steer's 
Head  (Dicentra  uniflora),  a  wild  cousin  of  the  Bleeding 
Heart  of  my  lady's  country  garden.  It  has  a  brief 
period  of  flowering,  coming  out  as  soon  as  the  snow 
has  disappeared  from  a  slope,  raising  its  inconspicuous 
stem  one  and  a  half  to  three  inches  high,  on  the  top 
of  which  rests  the  peculiar  shaped  flower  which  led  some 
poetic  mountaineer,  the  first  moment  he  saw  it,  to  give 
it  its  name.  For  as  Dr.  W.  L.  Jepson  says :  *'  The  two 
lower  spreading  petals  curve  out  on  each  side  from  the 
flower  and  answer  excellently  well  for  a  steer's  horns. 
The  two  upper  petals  are  narrowed  to  a  snout-like  proc- 
ess, and  are  notched  on  each  side  toward  the  base  (that 
is  at  the  end  nearest  the  summit  of  the  flower-stalk), 
so  as  to  reveal  the  dark  ovary  beneath,  thus  furnishing 
*  eyes  '  for  the  fairy  cattle,  while  above  the  '  eyes  '  is 
a  sepal  making  a  good  enough  forelock.     Of  the  many 


The  Flowers  of  California 337 

hundred  kinds  of  flowers  which  furnish  fancied  resem- 
blances, I  beheve  that  there  are  not  many  which  are  so 
httle  strained  as  this." 

Of  an  entirely  different  character  of  flower,  and  as 
common  as  the  steer's  head  is  rare,  is  the  ceanothus, 
generally  spoken  of  as  the  California  lilac.  In  the  Santa 
Cruz  ^Mountains  it  can  be  found  in  its  flaunting,  innocent, 
exuberant  loveliness.  It  is  dainty  and  exquisite  as  it 
lifts  itself  aloft  to  be  gazed  upon  and  enjoyed.  There 
are  myriads  of  blossoms  —  nay,  myriads  of  myriads  — 
the  mountain  slopes  for  miles  and  miles,  up  and  down, 
across  and  beyond,  are  covered  with  them.  They  can 
be  seen  miles  away,  like  a  soft,  unique-tinted  cloud,  rest- 
ing upon  the  rugged  slopes.  Bailey  Millard  sprang  into 
song  when  he  saw  them : 

"  My  hills  are  poets;  all  the  year 

They  sing  to  me  their  lays  sublime; 
They  sing  joy-songs  with  voices  clear 
And  sweetest  sing  in  April  time. 

Then  they  their  purple  robes  put  on 

Robes  spun  in  April's  lilac  looms 
Their  royal  flowered  robes  they  don, 

For  then  the  ceanothus  blooms. 

'  Faint,  faint  at  first,  then  deeper  toned 
Till  all  the  banks  are  gowned  and  caped, 
And  my  hill  monarchs,  high  enthroned, 
Are  in  the  ceanothus  draped! 

"  Stay,  Spring!   still  let  my  monarchs  wear 
Their  robes  and  sing  their  songs  sublime; 
Let  it  be  April  all  the  year 
And  always  ceanothus  time!  " 

Companioning  with  the  ceanothus  on  the  mountains 
is  the  dainty  flowered,  red-trunked  and  stemmed  man- 
zanita.  To  this  day.  familiar  though  I  am  with  these 
white-pink-tipped  bells,  I  always  think  of  "  fairy  bells  " 


338     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  moment  my  eyes  fall  upon  them.  And  instinctively 
I  look  for  the  magic  circle  of  the  "  little  people/'  and 
feel  like  lifting  up  the  leaves  in  the  hope  that  some  of 
them  may  be  hidden  there,  peeping  out  at  the  bewhis- 
kered  monster  who  dares  thus  to  intrude  upon  their 
hallowed  ground.  How  I  wish  I  might  be  a  fairy  for 
a  few  hours  or  days,  so  that  I  might,  when  again 
changed  back  to  manhood,  be  able  to  describe  in  fitting 
terms  the  relationship  these  dainty  fairy  bells  of  the 
manzanita  have  towards  us. 

Ina  Coolbrith  has  written  an  exquisite  sonnet  upon 
our  Mariposa  Lily,  in  which  she  asks : 

"  Insect  or  blossom?    Fragile,  fairy  thing, 
Poised  upon  slender  tip,  and  quivering 
To  flight!  a  flower  of  the  fields  of  air." 

The  tiger  lilies  are  equally  wonderful  and  beautiful, 
and  the  Matilija  poppies  have  gained  us  much  fame  in 
England,  where,  with  care,  they  can  be  made  to  bloom. 
They  are  not  rare,  but  occur  from  Santa  Barbara  south. 
The  name  was  given  —  Matilija  —  because  they  were 
found  in  great  profusion  in  this  canyon  a  few  miles 
above  Ventura.  By  many  it  is  regarded  as  our  most 
regal  flower  —  feminine,  of  course,  in  its  dainty  white- 
ness, and  planted  in  large  quantities  in  a  large  garden 
or  open  park  makes  an  enchanting  vision  of  purity  and 
delicate,  diaphanous  grace. 

In  many  of  the  woods  those  shy,  rare,  delicate  ex- 
otics —  the  orchids  —  are  to  be  found.  Several  times 
when  wandering  idly  through  the  untracked  forests, 
where  man's  foot  seldom  treads,  I  have  come  upon  them, 
to  be  startled  as  well  as  delighted:  startled  sometimes 
at  their  weird,  peculiar  forms;  delighted  at  the  rare 
discovery.     But  I  cannot  attempt  to  describe  them,  so 


The  Flowers  of  California  339 

fragile,  peculiar,  unlike  other  flowers.  It  takes  a  true 
and  great  poet  to  express  in  words  their  mar^•ellousness. 
Here  are  George  Sterling's  inimitable  suggestions  and 
pictures  as  delicate  in  phrase  and  felicitous  in  \'erbal 
choice  as  the  plants  themselves  are  delicate  and  rare: 

"Ye 

Seem  spirit  flowers  born  to  startle  man 

With  intimations  of  eternity 

And  hint  of  what  the  flowers  of  Heaven  may  be. 

Thou,  O  palest  one! 

Dost  seem  to  scorn  the  sun, 

And,  in  a  tropic,  dense, 

Languid  magnificence. 
Desire  to  iinow  thy  former  place. 

Where  no  man  comes  at  night, 

And  in  its  antic  flight 
Behold  the  vampire-bat  veer  off  from  thee 

As  from  a  phantom  face. 


And  thou,  most  weird  companion,  thou  dost  seem 

Some  mottled  moth  of  Hell, 

That  stealthily  might  fly 
To  hover  there  above  the  carnal  bell 
Of  some  black  lily,  still  and  venomous, 

And  poise  forever  thus." 

Of  the  California  golden  poppy  —  Copa  da  ore  — 
pages  might  be  written;  nay,  the  University  of  Leland 
Stanford  ptiblished  a  volume  full  of  its  science,  its  lore, 
its  beauty,  and  its  influences.  Few  know^  the  glory  of 
this  incomparable  satin-vestured  flower,  in  the  mlass, 
unless  they  have  seen  it  by  the  millions  on  a  sloping 
foothill,  or  on  a  mesa  upon  which  one  could  look  from 
some  superior  height.  Well  might  the  sailors  of  the 
early  Spanish  navigators,  gazing  upon  their  golden  bril- 
liancy as  they  covered  the  foothills,  thirty  miles  away, 
call  out  Capo  de  Flores!  —  the  Cape  of  Flowers! 

Its  Spanish  name  is  peculiarly  appropriate  —  cup  of 


340     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

gold,  —  sheeny,  satiny,  glossy,  lustrous  gold,  but  with 
petals  so  frail  and  delicate  as  to  shrink  at  a  touch.  Ina 
Coolbrith  daintily  sang  of  it : 

"  Thou  art  nurtured  from  the  treasure-veins 

Of  this  fair  land:   thy  golden  rootlets  sup 
Her  sands  of  gold  —  of  gold  thy  petals  spun. 

Her  golden  glory,  thou!  on  hills  and  plains, 
Lifting,  exultant,  every  kingly  cup 
Brimmed  with  the  golden  vintage  of  the  sun." 

Another  common  flower  to  Southern  Californians  in 
the  season  of  its  blooming,  yet  rare  to  most  Americans, 
and  precious  to  all  who  see  it,  whether  for  the  first  time 
or  the  thousandth,  is  the  Yucca  WHipplei,  poetically 
called  by  the  Spaniards,  "  the  Candlestick  of  the  Lord." 
On  the  foothills  and  mountain  slopes  in  spring  and  early 
summer  it  rises  from  its  cluster  of  lance-like  green 
leaves,  a  tall,  sentinel  stalk,  ten,  fifteen,  twenty  feet  high. 
The  upper  portion  is  hung  with  creamy  waxen  bells, 
that  catch  and  softly  radiate  the  sunlight,  thus  making 
them  shiny  lanterns  of  joy  and  beauty  even  in  the  blaze 
of  midday.  Literally  thousands  of  them  march  on  the 
hills  round  about  Los  Angeles  and  San  Diego,  and  it 
is  a  common  thing  to  see  an  automobile  return  from  a 
Sunday  picnic  trip  with  one  or  more  of  these  purely 
resplendent  minarets  of  floral  beauty,  carried  as  trium- 
phant banners  of  a  blessed  day.  I  used  the  word 
"  march  "  above,  and  some  may  think  it  a  misplaced 
word.  Yet  no  one  that  ever  saw  them  would  deem  it 
so.  They  tower  over  and  above  all  the  ordinary  brush 
and  flowers  of  the  hillsides,  and  there  are  so  many 
thousands  of  them,  that  they  actually  appear  like  strange 
soldiers  of  a  floral  kingdom  marching  in  soleinn  and 
semi-orderly  array  to  the  mountain  tops. 

I    hesitate    to    declare    how    manv    blossoms    I    have 


The  Flowers  of  California  341 

counted  on  one  of  these  slender  stems :  One,  two,  three 
and  four  thousand,  and  Miss  Parsons,  whose  IVild  Flow- 
ers of  California  every  flower-lover  should  possess,  risks 
her  reputation  for  veracity  by  asserting  that  they  some- 
times have  as  many  as  six  thousand. 

Akin  to  this  in  its  slender  tallness,  and  in  the  fact  that 
it  is  crowned  with  a  striking  mass  of  flower  panicles, 
yet  unlike  it  in  every  otlier  respect,  is  the  thorny  desert 
ocotillo,  or  cat's  claw,  —  aye,  those  who  have  suffered 
from  too  close  contact  with  it  call  it  "  the  devil's 
claw."  This  is  found  only  on  the  arid  deserts  of  the 
southland.  It  is  a  bunch  of  thorny  sticks  shooting 
up  from  a  common  centre,  each  stick  evidently  try- 
ing to  grow  up  straight  but,  being  compelled  to  yield 
room  to  his  fellows,  finally  compromising  on  a  slight 
angle.  Each  stalk  grows  independently  of  all  others 
and  attains  its  own  individual  height.  Some  are  very 
straight,  others  fall  over  almost  like  the  graceful  palm, 
and  still  others  have  sudden  angles  and  strange  twists. 
Sometimes  the  very  tips,  after  the  stem  has  grown  up 
straight  to  a  height  of  twelve,  fifteen,  and  even  eighteen 
feet,  droop  over  with  an  air  of  dejection  which  seems 
to  say  the  battle  to  keep  straight  is  too  hard.  Occa- 
sionally they  attain  a  height  of  twenty  feet.  I  have 
counted  one  hundred  and  twenty  stems  on  one  ocotillo, 
though  few  have  so  many.  The  general  appearance  of 
the  tree  is  as  if  a  handful  of  straight-stemmed  plants 
had  been  put  in  a  vase,  so  that,  while  at  the  base  the 
stems  were  kept  all  together,  they  had  spread  out,  up 
above,  in  every  direction.  I  found  them  in  full  flower 
at  the  end  of  March.  The  flower  is  a  flaunting  panicle 
of  a  brilliant  scarlet,  composed  of  beautiful  bell-like 
blossoms.  Sometimes,  when  looking  toward  the  sun, 
the   flower   appears   like   a    flaming   plumaged   paroquet 


342     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


or  other  brilliantly  feathered  bird  resting  on  the  end 
of  a  limb. 

The  ocotillo  has  the  remarkable  habit  of  leafing  out 
after  a  rain.  The  leaves  are  a  tender  green  and  spring 
out  along  the  stems,  side  by  side  with  the  thorns.  Even 
though  it  be  but  a  slight  rain  and  only  the  stems  (not 
the  roots)  get  wet,  the  leaves  appear.  Padre  Junipero 
Serra,  the  founder  of  the  California  Missions,  had  a 
very  poor  idea  of  this  "  candle  cactus,"  as  he  called  it. 
He  said  it  was  useless,  even  for  firewood. 

With  flowers  as  satiny  and  wearing  even  more  bril- 
liant colours  than  the  copa  da  oro,  the  cactuses  of  the 
desert  must  not  be  overlooked.  It  seems  impossible  that 
such  thorny,  inhospitable  creatures  can  be  crowned  with 
such  exquisite  blossoms,  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
they  are  as  delicate  in  texture,  almost,  as  the  rarest 
orchid,  and  their  colours  are  often  resplendent  in  their 
vivid  brilliancy. 

Yellows,  roses  and  scarlets  are  their  special  colours, 
but  the  variety,  the  gamut  they  play  upon  is  a  perpetual 
surprise.  Opuntias,  echinocactus,  mamillaria,  cereus,  — 
all  alike  have  these  rare  attractive  flowers,  the  cup  gen- 
erally deep  and  its  base  filled  with  heavy  scented  pollen 
to  allure  the  day  and  night  insects,  without  which  pol- 
lenization  could  never  be  accomplished. 

Nor  should  one  overlook,  —  nay,  it  would  be  im^- 
possible  for  the  most  inattentive  to  oz^erlook  either  of 
them  if  they  happened  within  his  vision  —  the  two  giant 
forms  of  these  desert  plants,  —  the  cereus  gigantea  or 
saguaro,  or  sahuaro  (pronounced  swa-ro),  and  the 
Yucca  Mohaviensis,  or  Joshua-tree,  or  tree  Yucca. 

For  many  years  the  botanists  affirmed  that  the  sa- 
guaro was  not  found  in  California,  though  numbers  have 
their  habitat  on  the  Colorado  River.     They  are  quite 


The  Flowers  of  California  343 

common,  however,  in  Arizona.  Giant  trees,  indeed,  they 
sometimes  stand  in  solitary  shafts,  again  with  one,  two 
or  more  projecting  arms,  ahnost  Hke  stately  semaphores, 
but  covered  from  head  to  foot  with  the  strongest  and 
most  piercing  thorns.  Nature  must  protect  her  own, 
and  unless  it  were  armoured  against  the  fierce  heat  of 
the  sun  and  predatory  animals,  no  plant  would  be  able 
to  live  through  a  single  day  on  the  desert.  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  thorns  is  wonderfully  accomplished  in  geo- 
metric designs.  When  the  flowering  time  comes  these 
monster  trees  blossom  forth  into  a  rich  and  gorgeous  pur- 
ple. Graceful,  slender,  stately,  the  suaharo  is  the  minaret 
among  trees,  with  flutings  more  perfect  than  man  can 
create. 

On  the  other  hand  the  Joshua  tree  has  its  trunk  and 
branches  out  like  an  ordinary  tree,  but  one  has  only 
to  come  near  it  to  realize  that  there  is  nothing  ordinary 
about  it.  It  abounds  on  certain  portions  of  the  Mohave 
desert,  and  rises  to  a  height  of  forty  or  more  feet.  The 
railway  traveller,  seeing  it  for  the  first  time,  seldom 
fails  to  conmient  on  its  weird,  fantastic,  peculiar  shape. 
It  begins  to  flower  in  March,  with  large  bunches  of 
soiled  white  petals.  These  have  a  penetrating  and  some- 
what disagreeable  odour. 

The  dale  a  spina  sa,  or  smoke  tree,  is  practically  known 
only  to  those  who  love  the  desert.  Many  a  time  I  have 
caught  sight  of  one  in  the  distance,  towards  sunset,  and 
for  a  few  moments  the  illusion  was  perfect,  of  a  gently 
rising,  smoky  white  cloud  from  a  camp  fire,  and  I  have 
found  myself  eagerly  looking  for  the  human  beings  who, 
assuredly,  must  be  somewhere  around. 

When  flowering  dalea  spinosa  is  a  most  gorgeous 
and  glowing  spectacle.  Every  point  blossoms  into 
flower,  and  every  flower  is  a  treasure  of  deep  purple. 


344     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Imagine  a  tree  covered  with  fifty  to  a  hundred  thousand 
of  these  blossoms,  bathed  in  the  pure,  knninous  desert 
atmosphere,  and  made  glowing  and  resplendent  in  the 
desert  sun.  It  is  a  spectacle  of  royal  purple  that  the 
eyes  of  man,  unfamiliar  wnth  the  desert,  have  never 
gazed  upon,  —  a  spectacle  of  colour  that  would  have 
dazzled  the  eyes  of  those  used  to  the  royal  purple  of 
the  great  Solomon  when  he  and  his  spouse  ascended  the 
throne,  aye,  even  had  he  and  his  whole  court  been  robed 
in  the  transcendent  richness  of  Tyrian  purple. 

Another  of  the  peculiar,  weird,  and  in  a  way,  repul- 
sive, though  fascinating  flowering  plants  of  California 
is  the  darlingtonia  —  the  pitcher  plants.  They  are  not 
common,  —  the  special  variety  bearing  the  State's  name, 
and  the  enthusiastic  botanist  will  take  a  long  trip  to  see 
them.  How  well  do  I  remember  the  first  time  I  saw 
a  mass  of  them  together  a  few  miles  from  Quincy, 
Plumas  County.  There  they  seem  to  find  their  chosen 
habitat,  lifting  their  yellowish-green  hoods  from  the 
marshy  soil,  into  the  vivid  sunlight,  like  snakes  moving 
to  find  warmth.  Miss  Parsons  rises  to  literary  skill  as 
she  describes  them : 

"  If  you  have  never  seen  the  plant  before,  you  will 
be  in  a  fever  of  excitement  till  you  can  reach  the  spot 
and  actually  take  one  of  the  strange  pitchers  in  your 
hand  to  examine  it.  Nothing  could  be  cleverer  than 
the  nicely  arranged  wiles  of  this  uncanny  plant  for  the 
capturing  of  the  innocent  —  yes,  and  of  the  more  know- 
ing ones  —  of  the  insect  world  who  come  within  its 
enchantment.  No  ogre  in  his  castle  has  ever  gone  to 
work  more  deliberately  or  fiendishly  to  entrap  his 
victims,  while  offering  them  hospitality,  than  does 
this  plant  ogre.  Attracted  by  the  bizarre  yellowish 
hoods   or  the   tall,   nodding   flowers,   the    foolish    insect 


The  Flowers  of  California  345 

alights  upon  the  former  and  commences  his  exploration 
of  the  fascinating  region.  He  soon  comes  upon  the 
wing,  which  often  being  smeared  with  a  trail  of  sweets, 
acts  as  a  guide  to  lure  him  on  to  the  dangerous  entrance 
to  the  hood-like  dome.  Once  within  this  hall  of  pleas- 
ure, he  roams  about,  enjoying  the  hospitality  spread  for 
him.  But  at  last,  when  he  has  partaken  to  satiety  and 
would  fain  depart,  he  turns  to  retrace  his  steps.  In  the 
dazzlement  of  the  translucent  windows  of  the  dome 
above,  he  loses  sight  of  the  darkened  door  in  the  floor 
by  which  he  entered  and  flies  forcibly  upward,  bumping 
his  head  in  his  eagerness  to  escape.  He  is  stunned  by 
the  blow  and  plunged  downw^ard  into  the  tube  below. 
Here  he  struggles  to  rise,  but  countless  downward  point- 
ing, bristly  hairs  urge  him  to  his  fate.  He  sinks  lower 
and  lower  in  this  '  well  of  death  '  until  he  reaches  the 
fatal  waters  in  the  bottom,  where  he  is  at  length  in- 
gulfed, adding  one  more  to  the  already  numerous  vic- 
tims of  this  diabolical  plant." 

One  of  the  most  graphic,  true  and  gripping  pieces 
of  literature  about  flowers  ever  written,  in  my  humble 
judgment,  is  Theodore  Van  Dyke's  account  of  the  pro-  ^ 
cession  of  the  wild  flowers  in  Southern  California. 
Charles  Dudley  Warner  deemed  it  so  beautiful  that  he  j 
quoted  the  larger  part  of  it  in  his  Our  Italy,  —  which, 
by  the  w^ay,  in  itself  is  a  marvellous  tribute  to  the  sur- 
passing power  of  this  lovely  land  over  a  trained  literary 
mind. 

Van  Dyke's  description  is  much  too  long  to  quote 
here,  but  to  the  interested,  let  me  refer  them  to  his  fas- 
cinating volume,^  or  to  Warner's  quotation. 

Perhaps  the  rarest  and  most  distinctive,  as  certainly 

1  Southern  California,  pages  38-49.  Ford's,  Howard  &  Hulbert,  New 
^  York,  1886. 


346     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

it  is  the  most  famous  of  all  of  California's  rare  floral 
treasures  is  the  foolishly-named  Sierran  snow-plant.  It 
does  not  look  like  snow,  it  neither  lives  on,  in,  or  under 
the  snow,  it  does  not  feel  like  snow,  and  should  not  be 
named  snow.  Found  only  on  the  mountains  above,  say, 
four  thousand  feet  to  the  timber  line,  it  appears  after 
the  snow  has  melted.  It  used  to  be  regarded  as  a  para- 
site, but  this  is  a  mistake.  It  undoubtedly  partakes  of 
the  fungus  character  and  thrives  on  decomposing  vege- 
table matter.  Sometimes  it  is  found  in  the  open,  but 
generally  in  the  occasionally  lit-up  shade  of  some  wood, 
where  the  soil  is  moist  and  rich.  With  a  base  sur- 
rounded by  short,  almost  stubby,  asparagus-like  leaves, 
it  flowers  half  way  up  the  stem  and  thence  to  the  top 
in  a  rich,  clustering  mass  of  vivid  scarlet  bells.  Seen 
in  the  flaming  sunlight  it  seems,  in  comparison  to  its 
dark  surroundings,  a  vivid  electric  torch.  In  the  coun- 
try around  Yosemite  there  are  hundreds  of  them,  and 
I  have  found  many  in  the  Tahoe  region  and  even  high 
in  the  Santa  Cruz  and  Coast  ranges.  But  even  though 
one  should  find  many  he  never  loses  the  sense  of  delight 
and  surprise  each  time.  It  is  as  though  some  beloved 
friend  took  pleasure  in  secreting  many  rare  and  precious 
gifts  of  the  same  desired  kind  where  one  is  apt  to  stum- 
ble unexpectedly  upon  them,  but  each  discovery  only 
seems  to  add  to  the  charm. 

It  was  up  in  the  Yosemite  region  that  Helen  Hunt 
Jackson  was  prompted  to  write  her  vivid  and  impres- 
sionable description  of  them.  She  said :  "  We  saw 
clumps  of  them  in  the  wildest  and  most  desolate  places. 
Surely  there  can  be  no  flower  on  earth  whose  look  so 
allies  it  to  uncanny  beings  and  powers.  '  Sarcodes 
sanguinea,'  the  botanists  have  called  it;  I  believe  the 
spirits  of  the  air  know  it  by  some  other. 


The  Flowers  of  California 347 

"  Imagine  a  red  cone,  from  four  to  ten  inches  in 
height,  and  one  or  two  in  diameter,  set  firmly  in  the 
ground.  It  is  not  simply  red,  it  is  blood-red ;  deep  and 
bright  as  drops  from  living  veins.  It  is  soft,  flesh-like, 
and  in  the  beginning  shows  simply  a  surface  of  small, 
close,  lapping,  sheath-like  points,  as  a  pine-cone  does. 
These  slowly  open,  beginning  at  the  top,  and  as  they 
fold  back  you  see  under  each  one  a  small  flower,  shaped 
like  the  flower  of  the  Indian  pipe,  and  of  similar  pulpi- 
ness. This  also  is  blood-red ;  but  the  centre  of  the  cone, 
now  revealed,  is  of  a  fleshy-pinkish  white;  so  also  is 
the  tiny,  almost  imperceptible  stem  which  unites  the 
flower  to  it.  They  grow  sometimes  in  clumps,  some- 
times singly.  As  far  off  as  one  can  see  the  dim  vistas 
of  these  pine-forests  will  gleam  out  the  vivid  scarlet  of 
one  of  these  superb,  uncanny  flowers.  When  its  time 
comes  to  die,  it  turns  black,  so  that  in  its  death,  also, 
it  looks  like  a  fleshy  thing  linked  to  mysteries." 

It  must  not  be  thought,  for  one  moment,  that  I  have 
exhausted  this  fascinating  theme.  Only  the  very  "  high 
lights  "  have  been  touched ;  a  few  suggestions  given ; 
a  few  of  the  rare  and  special  attractions  pointed  out. 

Hence,  the  botanist,  whether  professional  or  lay,  can 
rest  assured  that  he  will  find  romance  and  beauty  galore 
in  the  rarer,  stranger,  and  entirely  different  flora  of  the 
Golden  State. 

While  in  this  chapter  I  have  dealt  almost  entirely 
with  the  wild  flowers  of  the  State  there  is  a  fact  con- 
nected with  the  wealth  of  garden  flowers  found  on 
every  hand  that  it  is  well  to  call  attention  to.  Many 
of  the  cities,  towns  and  villages  of  the  State  have  Im- 
provement Clubs  or  Beautification  Committees.  These 
distribute  plants,  such  as  roses,  chrysanthemums,  etc., 
for  planting   in   gardens,   along  the  highways,   and   in 


348     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

vacant  corners.  For  instance  Los  Angeles  County  has 
already  planted  about  a  hundred  miles  of  public  highway 
to  roses,  and  Pomona  is  planting  ten  to  fifteen  thousand 
roses,  Los  Angeles  (city)  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand,  Riverside,  Long  Beach,  ten,  twenty,  thirty 
thousand  each,  and  so  on.  At  Riverside,  the  Beautifi- 
cation  Committee,  assisted  by  the  boys  of  the  agricul- 
tural class  of  the  Polytechnic  High  School,  distributed 
six  thousand  rooted  chrysanthemums  of  fine  varieties. 
Each  applicant  brought  a  card  of  fixed  size,  on  which 
name  and  address  was  written,  and  as  soon  as  the  plants 
were  distributed,  the  number  and  variety  were  added  to 
these  cards,  which  were  then  filed  for  reference.  This 
is  the  way  the  cities  are  made  bowers  of  floral  beauty. 
Even  the  poorest  classes  are  able  to  help,  and  do  help, 
most  materially,  as  they  love  the  flowers  with  a  greater 
devotion  because  in  the  past  some  of  them  have  not 
been  easy  to  obtain. 

Another  interesting  enlargement  of  this  flower  move- 
ment is  being  set  in  motion  as  this  book  goes  to  press. 
The  Women's  Clubs,  City  and  County  officials  and  others 
of  the  State,  are  planting  out  roses  all  along  the  State 
and  County  highways  described  in  Chapter  XXIV,  and 
at  every  Mission  Bell  along  the  ancient  Spanish  Camino 
Rcal,^  Castilian  roses.  Then  along  the  strip  on  each  side 
of  the  road  wild  California  poppies  are  being  planted. 
In  a  few  years  this  will  make  the  Floral  Highway  of 
the  World. 

*  (Cah-tnee-no  Ree-ahl)  The  King's  Highway. 


CHAPTER    XXIII 

California's  universities,   colleges  and 
observatories 

Romance  and  beauty  cluster  about  California's  edu- 
cational institutions.  It  is  certainly  romantic  that  the 
2  best  privately  endowed  university  of  the  world  is  in 
California,  and  that  it  has  three  world-famed  astro- 
nomical observatories  founded  and  conducted  by  private 
gifts.  And,  Nature  as  well  as  man,  has  made  them  all 
the  scenes  of  great  and  commanding  beauty.  The  State 
University  at  Berkeley  has  a  site  that  in  itself  is  a  won- 
der and  a  glory.  On  a  sloping  hill  that  rises  to  majestic 
grandeur,  and  dotted  with  dignified  and  hoary  live  oaks 
that  have  braved  the  storms  and  drank  of  the  fogs  and 
rains  of  a  thousand  years,  no  finer  site  ever  rejoiced  the 
hearts  of  student,  faculty  and  president,  or  thrilled  the 
bosoms  of  visiting  parents  and  guests.  It  overlooks  the 
wide  expanse  of  bay,  and  is  directly  opposite  the  open 
walls  of  the  Golden  Gate.  The  natural  recipient  of  all 
the  learning  of  the  Occident,  it  reaches  out  its  welcom- 
ing arms,  and  stands  with  open  heart  and  mind  recep- 
tive to  all  it  can  gain  from  the  Orient. 

It  began  as  the  College  of  California,  established  in 
Oakland  in  1S55.  and  did  not  move  to  Berkeley  until 
1873.  Some  great  and  notable  men  have  been  on  its 
faculty,  chief  of  whom  may  be  named  John  and  Joseph 
Le  Conte,  Edward  Rowland  Sill,  Bernard  Moses,  E.  W. 
Hilgard.  and  George  Holmes  Howison. 

Of  late  years,  under  the  presidency  of  Benjamin  Tde 

349 


350     California.  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


Wheeler,  who  came  here  from  Cornell,  the  university- 
has  expanded  wonderfully.  One  of  its  principal  bene- 
factors is  Mrs.  Phoebe  Hearst,  who  has  not  only  been 
generous  with  her  money,  but,  of  infinitely  greater  im- 
portance, has  given  of  her  daily  life,  her  moral  influ- 
ence, her  home  thought,  her  motherly  consideration  to 
the  well-being  of  the  students,  especially  the  girls.  And 
her  directing  and  far-seeing  mind  has  had  a  most  potent 
influence  in  shaping  the  future  of  the  campus  and  its 
architecture.  Unstinted  in  her  generosity,  ever  ready 
to  respond  to  every  legitimate  call,  she  has  also  induced 
her  son,  William  Randolph  Hearst,  to  make  a  notable 
contribution  to  the  equipment  of  the  university  in  the 
open-air  California  theatre,  modelled  after  the  ancient 
Greek  Epidarus.  It  is  of  reinforced  concrete,  in  a  nat- 
ural amphitheatre,  with  perfect  acoustics  and  with  a 
seating  capacity  (including  the  stage)  of  about  eight 
thousand.  On  the  occasion  of  President  Roosevelt's 
lectures  —  as  at  many  other  times  —  it  has  been 
crowded  to  its  utmost  capacity,  over  ten  thousand  people 
then  finding  room  to  hear  the  distinguished  speaker. 
At  such  a  time  it  is  a  most  inspiring  sight,  —  colour, 
motion,  life,  animation,  joy,  singing  of  birds,  sunshine, 
waving  of  pennants,  the  green  of  the  surrounding  trees, 
the  perfect  blue  of  the  overarching  sky  flecked  with 
clouds  of  purest  white,  making  a  spectacle  of  thrilling 
enchantment. 

From  the  educational  side  there  is  a  difference  be- 
tween the  University  of  California  and  Stanford.  The 
former  is  dominated  largely  by  President  Wheeler's 
devotion  to  the  Greek  spirit  of  culture,  the  latter  to  the 
modern  spirit  of  scientific  investigation.  Both,  however, 
are  broad  and  liberal,  hence  their  ideals  overlap  consid- 
erably. 


California's  Universities  351 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  at  Berkeley,  largely 
owing  to  the  energetic  labours  of  Professor  Henry 
Morse  Stephens,  is  located  the  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft 
Library  of  Spanish-Americana.  This  was  gathered  by 
Mr.  Bancroft  from  all  quarters  of  the  earth,  while  he 
was  a  business  man  of  San  Francisco,  often  at  personal 
loss  and  sacrifice,  to  enable  him  to  write  his  wonderful 
histories.  The  library  is  an  object  lesson  to  the  world 
in  the  application  of  business  foresight  to  historical  sci- 
ence. It  is  not  California  boasting,  but  the  simple,  un- 
varnished truth,  that  never  in  the  history  of  all  the  ages 
has  such  a  collection  as  this  of  original  sources  for  the 
writing  of  history  been  gathered  together.  Bancroft 
deserves  —  and  will  secure  —  the  undying  gratitude  of 
the  centuries  yet  to  come,  not  only  for  the  histories  which 
he  was  the  means  of  creating,  but  because  of  the  new 
standard  he  set  for  the  early  accumulation  of  historic 
data. 

"  The  oldest  educational  institution  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  "  is  the  proud  title  of  the  University  of  Santa 
Clara.  Originally  the  ninth  of  the  Franciscan  Missions, 
it  was  secularized  in  1836-37  by  order  of  the  Mexican 
Assembly.  In  1846  it  was  a  parish,  the  Indians  placed 
on  their  own  responsibility,  and  Padre  Real,  the  pastor, 
authorized  to  sell  the  ]\Iission  lands  to  pay  debts  and 
support  himself  and  the  church.  March  19,  1857,  the 
new  parish  priest,  a  cultivated  and  learned  Jesuit,  Father 
John  Nobili,  began  to  prepare  for  the  establishment  of 
a  college  for  Catholic  boys  and  young  men.  He  secured 
the  charter  in  1855.  From  that  day  it  has  gone  on  grow- 
ing in  strength,  power,  numbers,  wealth  and  influence, 
until  in  June.  1912,  having  received  due  authorization, 
it  launched  forth  upon  its  career  as  a  full-fledged  uni- 
versity.      Several    new    buildings    already    have    been 


/ 


352     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

erected  and  there  is  every  expectation  that  it  will  add 
to  its  laurels,  in  its  larger  capacity,  to  those  won  while 
it  was  less  favoured  and  less  pretentious.  It  has  sent 
out  such  influential  men  in  the  legal  profession  as 
Stephen  M.  White,  D.  M.  Delmas  and  James  D.  Phelan, 
the  first-named.  United  States  Senator  from  California, 
and  the  last-named,  the  mayor  of  San  Francisco.  George 
Montgomery,  the  father  of  modern  aviation,  was  one 
of  its  professors,  Martin  V.  Merle,  the  author  of  several 
successful  plays,  a  pupil,  and  Father  Ricard,  the  distin- 
guished astronomer,  one  of  its  present  faculty. 

The  Leland  Stanford,  Junior,  University  was  the  gift 
of  Leland  and  Jane  Lathrop  Stanford  as  a  memorial 
to  their  son,  a  beloved  lad  who  died  before  his  maturity. 
There  is  no  more  touching  story  of  devotion  to  a  high 
ideal  in  the  history  of  education  than  that  written  by 
David  Starr  Jordan,  the  first  president,  in  his  Life  of  a 
Good  Woman.  Sacrificing  everything  that  most  women 
hold  dear,  with  a  tenacity  of  purpose  positively  thrilling, 
often  living  in  comparative  poverty  and  obscurity  in 
order  not  to  diminish  by  one  dollar  the  imperilled  en- 
dowment of  the  school  of  her  love,  she  cherished  and 
cared  for  it  up  to  the  day  of  her  death.  The  romance 
of  that  simple  story  should  never  be  forgotten,  and  Dr. 
Jordan  has  done  the  world  a  favour  by  recording  it  at 
the  proper  time. 

The  University  itself  is  endowed  with  many  millions 
of  money,  but  the  true  spirit  of  its  mental  and  spiritual 
endowment  is  revealed  in  the  fact  that  during  the  days 
of  financial  stress,  while  the  Stanford  estate  was  being 
settled,  there  were  times  when  president  and  faculty 
were  reduced  to  a  salary  basis  that  barely  covered  the 
necessities  of  life.  Yet  they  stuck  to  their  posts,  ever 
cheerfully,  bravely  and  without  a  murmur,  and  in  such 


California's  Universities  353 

discipline  the  spirit  of  the  institution  was  developed. 
David  Starr  Jordan  was  its  first  president,  and  its  con- 
trolling influence  until  his  resignation  in  19 13,  when  Dr. 
John  C.  Brenner,  who  had  acted  as  president  during 
Dr.  Jordan's  many  absences,  was  elected. 

In  location,  surrounded  by  vineyards  and  beautiful 
clusters  of  live  oaks,  the  rolling  hills  to  the  west,  and 
the  sloping  fields  of  green  to  the  Bay  on  the  east,  the 
buildings  of  stone  in  the  expanded  Mission  or  Spanish 
type  of  architecture,  with  low,  tiled  structures  around 
an  inner  and  outer  quadrangle,  punctuated  with  stately 
towers  and  gateways,  Stanford  pleases  the  eye  and  charms 
the  soul.  From  a  first  year's  class  of  some  four  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  students  to  its  present  number  of 
some  three  thousand  is  a  wonderful  growth.  And  of  its 
far-reaching  influence  in  the  State's  highest  development 
no  one  may  venture  to  prophesy. 

In  Los  Angeles  the  Methodists,  during  boom  days, 
established  the  University  of  Southern  California.  For 
awhile  it  flourished  amazingly,  and  at  inflated  values, 
it  had  an  endowment  that  staggered  the  imagination. 
Then  came  the  "  flattening  out,"  and  for  several  years 
the  institution  went  through  severe  storm  and  stress. 
But  its  friends  rallied  to  its  support,  it  weathered  the 
gale,  and  when  Los  Angeles  began  to  grow  and  expand, 
it  reaped  the  reward  of  its  faithful  waiting.  Naturally, 
however,  it  cannot  be  expected  to  rank  in  the  same  class 
with  the  State  endowed,  or  the  fortune-blessed  Universi- 
ties of  the  north,  but  it  is  doing  good  work,  has  a  grow- 
ing body  of  fine  students,  a  faculty  that  is  impressing 
itself  upon  the  new  generations,  and  a  campus  and  build- 
ings much  too  circumscribed  for  the  work  they  are  ac- 
complishing. 

In  its  subordinate,  but  equally  important,  educational 


354     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

institutions  California  is  not  one  whit  behind  its  uni- 
versities. These  include  Pomona  College,  at  Claremont, 
a  growing  institution  founded  by  Congregationalists ; 
and  under  the  presidency  of  James  Blaisdell,  an  educator 
of  rare  endowments  and  capable  of  arousing  great  en- 
thusiasm for  the  highest  ideals  in  his  students;  Occi- 
dental College,  in  Eagle  Rock  Valley,  Los  Angeles, 
whose  president,  John  Willis  Baer,  for  years  was  one 
of  the  most  potent  influences  in  the  world-wide  work 
of  the  International  Y.  M.  C.  A.;  and  Throop  College 
of  Technology,  at  Pasadena,  founded  by  Amos  G. 
Throop,  a  well-known  business  man  of  Chicago,  and 
which  under  the  leadership  of  President  James  A.  B. 
Scherer  bids  fair  to  become  one  of  the  best  endowed  and 
most  powerful  technical  colleges,  as  it  is  also  the  most 
advantageously  located,  of  the  entire  West. 

There  are  four  State  Normal  Schools,  the  oldest  one, 
at  San  Jose,  a  model  institution  both  in  its  buildings 
and  work.  In  Los  Angeles  new  buildings  are  being 
erected  on  a  new  site ;  at  Chico,  by  the  energy  and  gen- 
erosity of  John  Bidwell,  the  northern  part  of  the  State 
is  provided  for ;  and  in  San  Diego  the  extreme  south 
has  its  teachers  educated  in  a  classic  structure,  the  site 
of  which  overlooks  one  of  the  most  inspiring  views 
known  to  man. 

There  are  several  colleges  in  California  deserving  of 
more  than  passing  note.  Principal  of  these  is  Mills 
College,  the  first  college  for  women  on  the  Pacific  slope, 
founded  in  187 1  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Cyrus  T.  Mills,  five 
miles  east  of  Oakland.  A  beautiful,  well-watered  estate 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  acres  was  planted  out  with  a 
wealth  of  trees,  shrubs  and  flowers  that  now  embower 
the  buildings  in  a  glorious  riot  of  colour  and  leafy 
beauty.     In   1877  the  school  and  property  were  deeded 


California's  Universities  355 

to  a  board  of  trustees,  to  be  conducted  as  a  nonsectarian 
but  Christian  school  for  young-  women.  Dr.  Mills  re- 
tired from  the  presidency  in  1884,  to  be  succeeded  by 
his  noble  wife,  who,  a  few  years  ago,  gave  way  to 
Dr.  Luella  C.  Carson,  formerly  Dean  of  Women  at  the 
University  of  Oregon. 

Peculiarly  blessed  in  its  climate  California  has  nat- 
urally won  to  itself  institutions  that  rely  upon  climate 
and  clear  atmosphere.  James  Lick,  the  eccentric  mil- 
lionaire who  was  willing  to  be  regarded  during  his  life- 
time as  a  miser  that  he  might  accumulate  money  for  the 
benefit  of  his  fellow  men,  was  the  first  to  establish  or 
prepare  for  the  establishment  of  a  great  astronomical 
observatory  in  California.  At  first  he  contemplated  put- 
ting it  up  in  the  High  Sierras  on  Lake  Tahoe,  and  Ob- 
servatory Point,  north  and  east  of  Tahoe  Tavern,  is 
named  from  the  fact  that  that  was  the  chosen  site,  but 
he  was  finally  prevailed  upon  to  erect  it  upon  Mt.  Ham- 
ilton, overlooking  his  old  home  at  San  Jose  in  the  Santa 
Clara  Valley.  Over  a  million  and  a  quarter  was  spent 
in  its  erection  and  equipment,  and  there  have  been  many 
notable  gifts  in  addition  to  the  Lick  endowment.  It  is 
now  a  portion  (as  Mr.  Lick  designed)  of  the  Astro- 
nomical Department  of  the  State  University.  Several 
noted  astronomers  have  done  excellent  work  there, 
amongst  others  such  men  as  Holden,  Barnard,  Burnham, 
Keeler,  and  Campbell,  the  present  director,  with  his 
assistant,  Perrine. 

When  Professor  Lowe  constructed  the  Mount  Lowe 
Railway,  in  the  Sierra  Madre  Range,  above  Pasadena 
and  Los  Angeles,  in  1894,  he  established  also  the  Lowe 
Observatory  upon  a  commanding  site  slightly  above 
Echo  Mountain.  Calling  to  preside  over  its  destinies, 
Dr.  Lewis  Swift,  of  the  Warner  Observatory,  of  Roch- 


356     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ester,  N.  Y.,  the  latter  brought  with  him  the  sixteen- 
inch  refracting  telescope  given  to  him  by  the  people  of 
that  city.  For  many  years  he  lived  here,  hunting  for 
nebulas  and  comets  and  giving  delight  and  instruction 
to  thousands  of  visitors  who,  under  certain  conditions, 
were  given  the  freedom  of  the  Observatory.  Then,  in 
August,  1900,  when  Dr.  Swnft's  increasing  years  com- 
pelled him  to  resign,  Professor  Edgar  L.  Larkin  became 
the  director,  a  position  he  has  filled  with  eminent  honour 
to  himself  and  the  satisfaction  of  many  thousands  ever 
since. 

On  a  neighbouring  peak,  Andrew  Carnegie  was  in- 
duced to  establish  a  Solar  Observatory.  Professor 
George  C.  Hale,  formerly  of  the  Yerkes  Observatory, 
came  to  Mt.  Wilson  with  his  photographer,  Ferdinand 
Ellemnan,  and  with  a  small  horizontal  telescope  made 
several  photographs  of  the  sun  and  its  spectrum.  These 
suggested  so  much  that  he  immediately  interested  Mr. 
Carnegie,  with  the  result  named. 

Situated  at  an  elevation  of  5,890  feet  on  the  eastern 
end  of  the  Mount  Wilson  ridge,  the  Mount  Wilson  Solar 
Observatory  of  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington 
is  above  four-fifths  of  the  fog  and  the  imperceptible  haze 
and  smoke  of  the  valley  below.  The  record  of  an  av- 
erage of  close  to  three  hundred  days  and  nights  a  year 
that  the  instruments  are  in  use  shows  how  well  chosen 
the  location  is. 

In  several  respects  the  equipment  of  the  Observatory 
is  without  equal  and  entirely  different  from  the  usual 
conception  of  astronomical  instruments.  This  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  men  in  charge  are  original  investi- 
gators, and  the  Carnegie  Institution  is  able  to  supply 
the  money  necessary  to  build  instruments  of  a  size  and 
kind  never  before  attempted.     The  investigations  being 


California's  Universities  357 

entirely  photographic,  all  the  instruments  are  designed 
to  this  end.  Reflecting  star  light  from  the  silvered  sur- 
face of  concave  glass  mirrors  to  the  photographic  plates 
results  in  much  shorter  exposure  than  the  use  of  lenses 
of  the  same  size,  and  the  reflecting  telescope  has  many; 
other  advantages  in  design  and  construction  over  the 
refractor.  At  present  the  equipment  consists  of :  a  sixty- 
inch  reflector  mounted  in  a  large  dome  sixty  feet  in 
diameter  and  used  for  work  on  the  stars  every  night 
the  weather  conditions  permit ;  a  horizontal  reflecting 
telescope  used  for  routine  photographs  of  the  sun  daily ; 
a  tower  telescope  sixty  feet  high  and  a  second  tower 
telescope,  almost  three  times  as  large,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  high,  both  used  for  solar  w'ork.  The  tower 
telescopes  are  unique;  the  larger  one  has  a  circular  pit 
ten  feet  in  diameter  and  eighty  feet  deep  under  the  cen- 
tre, and  fitted  with  instruments  to  form  a  huge  spectro- 
scope, so  that,  the  beam  of  sunlight,  reflected  from  two 
mirrors  and  passed  through  a  lens  at  the  top  of  the 
tower,  is  brought  to  a  focus  at  the  top  of  the  pit,  there 
it  passes  through  a  narrow  slit  to  the  bottom  of  the  pit, 
where  it  is  resolved  into  the  spectrum  and  reflected  back 
to  a  photographic  plate  beside  the  slit  at  the  top;  the 
distance  travelled  is  over  three  hundred  feet. 

There  is  now  in  process  of  construction  a  new  reflect- 
ing telescope  with  a  mirror  one  hundred  inches  in  diam- 
eter mounted  under  a  dome  ninety  feet  across,  which, 
when  finished,  will  be  the  largest  ever  built  and  close 
to  the  limit  of  mechanical  ability  of  the  present  time. 
It  will  be  completed  soon  after  the  publication  of  this 
volume. 

The  offices,  laboratories,  and  instrument  shops  located 
in  Pasadena  are  as  important  as  the  telescopes  on  Mount 
Wilson,  for  the  reason  that  a  mere  collection  of  pho- 


358     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

tographs  would  be  simply  interesting,  and  it  is  only  by 
seemingly  endless  measuring,  calculating,  and  comparing 
that  the  real  value  is  worked  out,  while  the  shops  are 
necessary  to  build  and  keep  in  repair  instruments  which 
cannot  be  bought  and  are  not  duplicated  anywhere. 


CHAPTER    XXIV 

AUTOMOBIONG    IN    CALIFORNIA 

The  rapidity  with  which  mankind  nowadays  rushes 
to  bring  to  culmination  an  epoch  was  never  more  force- 
fully illustrated  than  with  the  automobile.  Thirty  years 
ago  unknown,  even  in  the  vaguest  way,  save  to  a  few 
enthusiastic  experimenters,  the  automobile  is  now  the 
accepted  vehicle  for  the  whole  civilized  world.  Not 
even  such  gigantic  moral  movements  as  Christianity, 
the  spread  of  Mohammedanism,  the  abolition  of  the 
Slave  Trade  were  consummated  with  a  tithe  of  the  speed 
with  which  the  automobile  has  conquered  the  travelling 
world. 

The  citizens  of  California  alone  own  over  a  hundred 
thousand  automobiles,  and  thousands  are  brought  into 
the  State  by  tourists  who  come  both  winter  and  summer 
to  enjoy  its  climatic,  scenic  and  restful  advantages. 

Hence  for  its  own  citizenship,  who  are  satisfied  with 
nothing  less  than  the  best,  and  to  meet  the  exacting 
demands  made  by  those  who  come  from  other  States, 
and  who  are  used  to  the  best  that  money  can  purchase, 
California  has  felt  impelled  to  provide  a  complete  sys- 
tem of  roads  from  one  end  to  the  other.  Enlightened 
self-interest  alone  was  urgent  sufficient  to  bring  this 
wonderful  desideratum  to  pass,  but  when  to  business 
profit  was  added  the  vision  of  greater  personal  pleasure 
in  gaining  easy  and  pleasant  access  to  all  the  scenic  por- 

359 


360     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


tions  of  the  State,  the  proposition  had  but  to  be  sug- 
gested to  be  taken  up  in  every  county  with  enthusiasm. 

The  result  is  Cahfornia  has  already  largely  secured 
what  will  be,  when  completed,  the  most  perfect  system 
of  State  and  county  roads  in  the  country.  This  has  been 
effected  by  concerted  action  of  both  State  and  county, 
stimulated  by  the  fact  that  good  roads  are  recognized  as 
an  essential  factor  in  the  rapid  and  normal  development 
of  any  progressive  country. 

It  seemed  a  gigantic  request  to  prefer  to  the  State 
legislature  of  1909  that  it  provide  for  an  appropriation 
of  eighteen  million  dollars  to  construct  a  State  High- 
way. But  so  thoroughly  were  the  legislators  posted 
upon  the  wishes  of  their  constituents  in  regard  to  this 
matter  that  there  was  practically  no  opposition  and  the 
act  was  duly  passed.  Successive  legislatures  not  only 
approved  of  but  added  to  the  efficiency  of  the  State 
Highway  Commission  —  the  body  charged  with  the 
work  —  and  also  provided  ways  and  means  for  main- 
taining the  highways  after  construction. 

No  sooner  had  the  State  declared  itself  than  the  re- 
spective counties  began  to  agitate  for  an  enlargement  of 
the  plan,  aixl  demanded  of  their  supervisors  that  they 
contribute  their  quota  to  the  work,  for  the  especial  bene- 
fit of  their  own  counties.  The  results  showed  the  eager- 
ness of  the  counties  to  participate,  for  in  a  short  time 
bonds  to  the  amount  of  another  eighteen  million  dollars 
were  voted  by  the  respective  counties  for  this  purpose, 
thus  calling  upon  California  as  a  whole  to  expend  as 
speedily  as  good  work  would  justify  the  enormous  sum 
of  thirty-six  million  dollars  upon  her  State  and  county 
highways. 

To  coordinate  the  work  of  State  and  counties  re- 
quired some  skill  and  tact,  but  the  frank  and  open  way 


Automobilinsr  in  California  361 


in  which  the  State  Highway  Commission  went  to  work 
produced  the  desired  effect.  The  Department  of  Engi- 
neering of  the  State  of  California,  composed  of  seven 
men,  was  charged  with  the  responsible  guidance  of  the 
highway  work.  They  were  called  an  Advisory  Board. 
Its  composition  was  as  follows,  —  the  Governor,  State 
Engineer,  Superintendent  of  State  Hospitals,  Chairman 
of  the  State  Board  of  Harbour  Commissioners  of  San 
Francisco,  and  three  otlier  members  appointed  by  the 
Governor.  This  Advisory  Board  met,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  powers  vested  in  it,  elected  the  three  appointed 
members  (appointed  for  that  express  purpose)  as  the 
"  California  Highway  Commission,"  and  empowered 
''  to  take  full  charge  of  the  entire  matter  of  the  con- 
struction and  acquisition  of  a  system  of  State  highways." 
The  Advisory  Board  reserved  to  itself  the  right  to  place 
its  final  seal  of  approval  upon  all  the  decisions  of  the 
Commission,  and  the  latter  scrupulously  required  the  full 
endorsement  of  their  plans  before  they  ivent  ahead  and 
put  them  into  execution. 

Their  plan  for  securing  the  cooperation  of  the  coun- 
ties was  somewhat  as  follows :  They  called  upon  every 
county  in  the  State,  through  their  Boards  of  Super- 
visors to  provide  free  rights  of  way  and  to  build  all 
bridges  necessary  for  the  State  highway  zvithin  their 
respective  limits.  The  responses  were  most  encoura- 
ging. The  value  of  this  help  on  the  part  of  the  counties 
is  beyond  estimation.  With  full  local  knowledge  of  the 
situation  the  county  officials  could  clear  up  titles  to 
rights  of  way  and  secure  deeds,  overcoming  the  local 
difficulties  that  were  sure  to  arise,  as  no  outside  central 
body  could  have  done. 

The  Act  called  for  two  State  highways,  one  on  the 
Coast  and  the  other  through  the  great  interior  valleys  of 


362     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

the  Sacramento  and  the  San  Joaquin.  Naturally  there 
were  bound  to  be  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  courses 
of  these  highways,  and  if  the  counties  were  to  be  al- 
lowed to  dictate  how  the  State  highway  should  run 
through  their  territory,  it  would  naturally  be  "  as 
crooked  as  a  dog's  hind  leg."  This  would  materially 
add  to  the  expense,  and  also  defeat  the  avowed  purpose 
of  tlie  highways,  which  was  to  provide  the  most  direct 
and  convenient  intercommunication  between  all  parts  of 
the  State. 

This  question  early  arose  in  Butte  County,  the  county 
seat  of  which  is  Oroville.  With  a  broad,  patriotic  and 
magnanimous  view  of  the  situation  that  w411  ever  re- 
dound to  their  honour  and  prove  their  loyalty  and  de- 
votion to  the  good  of  the  State  as  a  whole,  the  county, 
with  the  full  consent  of  the  citizens  of  Oroville,  united 
in  declaring  that  the  county  seat  waived  all  claim  to  be 
upon  the  main  highway  and  that  they  would  cheerfully 
accept  whatever  route  the  Commission,  after  due  inves- 
tigation, decided  upon  as  the  best.  Here  was  a  splendid 
example  which  has  materially  influenced  other  counties. 
In  others,  however,  friction  arose,  and  to  settle  definitely 
the  questions  at  issue  the  Governor,  as  chairman  of  the 
Advisory  Board  was  appealed  to.  He  called  upon  the 
Attorney  General  for  a  specific  interpretation  of  the  act 
as  applied  to  the  case  at  issue,  as  well  as  other  points 
that  had  been  raised.  The  answer  was  definite  that  the 
act  placed  upon  the  Highway  Commission  alone  the 
responsibility  of  determining  the  location  of  the  trunk 
highways  and  of  the  laterals  which  were  to  connect  the 
county  seats  with  the  trunks.  The  main  roads  were  to 
be  by  the  most  direct  and  practicable  routes.  In  accord- 
ance with  this  decision  the  Commission  then  proceeded 
to  locate  the  highway.     The  local  authorities  were  called 


Automobiling  in  California 363 

upon  to  suggest,  the  State  engineers  to  report,  and  then 
the  Commission  personally  went  over  the  proposed 
routes,  laid  the  result  of  their  studies  before  the  Advisory 
Board,  with  their  recommendations,  and  finally  an- 
nounced the  routes  officially  chosen. 

The  actual  building  was  then  begun.  Here  many 
problems  were  encountered.  They  were  met  as  follows. 
It  was  decided  that  the  Commission  should  purchase  all 
the  crushed  rock,  cement  and  other  material  required, 
thus  making  the  inspectors  of  the  Commission  alone 
resfjonsible  for  their  quality,  doing  away  with  any  ques- 
tion of  scamping  or  graft,  and  materially  reducing  the 
cost  of  purchase,  also  of  transportation.  Over  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  and  more  has  been  saved  in  this  way,  in 
these  items  alone,  beside  encouraging  many  small  con- 
tractors to  undertake  sections  of  the  road,  which,  had 
they  been  required  to  purchase  the  materials  needed 
they  scarcely  would  have  ventured  to  do.  This  was 
deemed  good  policy,  as  distributing  the  payment  for 
work  through  the  hands  of  many,  rather  than  a  very 
limited  coterie  of  opulent  contractors. 

The  State  Highway  Commission  also  undertook  to 
protect  all  contractors  in  their  use  of  questionable  paving 
patents.  There  have  been  so  many  complex  and  diverse 
patents  issued  for  road-making  that  to  wait  until  all  the 
questions  were  legally  solved  and  difficulties  were  re- 
moved would  seriously  retard  the  work.  The  Commis- 
sion, therefore,  resolved  that  the  State  should  bear  this 
responsibility  so  that  the  contractors  would  not  feel  that 
they  must  put  in  higher  bids  to  cover  the  risk  they  were 
running;  and,  furthermore,  they  deemed  it  the  better 
policy,  if  royalties  wxre  to  be  paid,  that,  as  the  State 
would  ultimately  have  to  pay  them  anyhow,  the  matter 
should  be  placed  in  their  hands  to  begin  with. 


364     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

In  the  meantime  the  actual  engineers  were  having 
their  own  peculiar  problems  to  meet.  They  had  a  cer- 
tain sum  of  money  to  spend  with  which  they  were  re- 
quired to  build  a  certain  number  of  miles  of  road.  No 
privilege  was  given  to  them  to  build  as  far  as  they  could 
with  the  money  provided,  but  they  vinst  so  figure  and 
plan  that  the  whole  highway  system  should  be  actually 
completed  within  the  sum  provided.  Realizing  that  the 
roads  after  being  built  must  be  maintained,  they  had 
to  look  therefore  at  the  problem  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  future  as  well  as  the  present.  This  meant  that, 
on  the  average,  including  administration  expenses,  the 
roads  must  not  cost  more  than  $6,600  per  mile,  which 
was  obviously  too  little  if  the  whole  system  was  to  be 
paved. 

As  a  result  of  much  deliberation  the  Commission 
adopted  as  a  standard  type  of  paving  to  meet  the  average 
conditions  a  Portland  cement  concrete  roadway,  fifteen 
feet  wide,  protected  by  a  thin  surfacing  of  asphaltic  oil 
combined  with  stone  screenings.  This  did  not  mean  that 
all  the  State  roads  w^ere  to  be  so  constructed,  for  some 
of  the  roads  were  already  paved  to  a  width  of  twenty- 
four  feet  where  the  traffic  seemed  to  require  it,  and  sur- 
faced with  asphaltic  concrete.  Nor  did  it  mean  that 
all  of  the  roads  would  be  paved,  for  in  some  of  the 
mountain  counties  such  a  treatment  would  be  absurd 
under  present  traffic  conditions. 

No  sooner  were  these  conclusions  announced  than  a 
number  of  contractors  complained  to  the  governor  that 
the  "  thin  bituminous  wearing  surface  "  was  not  per- 
manent, and  advocated  that  the  work  be  done  in  ac- 
cordance with  specifications  which  they  submitted.  Af- 
ter full  hearing  the  governor  decided  that  the  plan  sub- 
mitted by   the  contractors   was   impossible.     According 


Automobiling  in  California  365 

to  their  own  showing  their  type  of  wearing  surface 
would  cost  not  less  than  $4,752  per  mile,  while  that  of 
the  Commission  was  costing  only  $440  per  mile,  —  a 
cost  more  than  ten  times  as  great,  —  and  the  mere 
interest  on  which  would  practically  pay  the  cost  of  main- 
taining the  thin  surface  by  replacing  it  every  two  years, 
if  necessary.  To  follow  the  contractors'  plan  would 
exhaust  the  whole  appropriation  on  about  forty-seven 
per  cent,  of  the  mileage  required.  In  effect,  therefore, 
it  asked  that  certain  portions  of  the  State  be  favoured 
and  other  sections  neglected. 

The  State  expects  to  construct  about  1,300  miles  and 
the  counties  a  little  more,  so  that  the  total  mileage  will 
amount  to  2,700.  In  determining  which  work  to  do 
first  the  Commission  has  been  influenced  by  those  coun- 
ties which  have  purchased  the  State  bonds.  For  in- 
stance, Los  Angeles  County  banks  subscribed  for  $270,- 
000  worth  of  bonds,  the  Highway  Commission  agreeing 
to  expend  that  amount  in  Los  Angeles  County,  it  being 
legally  entitled  to  that  work,  and  more.  At  the  same 
time  it  must  be  recalled  that  no  county  will  be  ignored, 
even  though  it  purchases  no  bonds.  It  will  simply  have 
to  wait  until  the  bond  purchasing  counties  have  had  their 
work  done. 

To  faciliate  and  urge  on  the  work  systematically  the 
State  is  divided  into  seven  parts,  with  an  engineer  in 
charge  of  each  division.  It  can  be  imagined,  therefore, 
how,  with  startling  suddenness,  the  whole  State  seemed 
to  spring  into  a  fever,  with  breakings  out  of  piles  of  ce- 
ment, crushed  rock,  barrels  of  asphaltum,  road  rollers, 
cement  mixers,  workmen's  huts,  etc.  For  not  only  the 
State  began  work,  but  the  counties  also.  As  early  as 
September,  1907,  Sacramento  County  voted  $825,000. 
About   the    same   time   Los   Angeles   voted   $3,500,000. 


366     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 


March  i6,  1908,  San  Joaquin  County  pledged  $1,890,- 
000,  and  August  3,  1909,  San  Diego  voted  $1,250,000. 
As  soon  thereafter  as  possible  almost  every  county  came 
into  line,  and  the  result  has  been  an  example,  an  inspira- 
tion and  a  joy  to  the  world. 

County  Highway  Commissions  have  worked  in  har- 
mony with  the  State  Commission,  and  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible, while  there  has  been  diversity  in  local  road  speci- 
fications as  there  also  have  been  in  those  of  the  State 
roads,  there  is  a  general  uniformity  and  harmony,  the 
object  being  to  suit  the  road  to  the  local  conditions. 
While  the  State  owns  no  rock  quarries,  some  of  the 
counties  do.  and  this  public  ownership  has  materially 
added  to  the  extent  of  the  work  the  County  Commis- 
sions have  been  able  to  accomplisli  with  the  money  at 
their  disposal. 

The  question  is  sometimes  asked  as  to  the  age  of  the 
bonds  and  interest  rates.  Those  of  the  State  are  forty 
years  at  from  four  to  five  per  cent.,  and  the  counties 
vary  from  twenty  to  forty  years  at  the  same  interest 
charges. 

The  larger  part  of  the  work  of  both  State  and  county 
is  being  done  by  contract,  therefore  there  is  little  room 
for  appointees  to  positions  through  political  pull.  Men 
are  judged  by  their  competency,  ability  and  character, 
and  if  they  lack  m  all  or  any  of  these  they  are  let  out. 
The  wages  paid  are  the  same  as  in  the  same  positions 
in  private  service. 

I  have  been  thus  explicit  in  going  over  all  the  features 
of  this  work  as  I  am  satisfied  other  States  will  soon  see 
it  to  be  to  their  advantage  to  do  as  California  has  done, 
and  it  is  with  laudable  pride  that  I  am  able  to  record 
her  advanced  position  in  this  important  field  of  pro- 
gressiveness.      Property    adjacent    to    both    State    and 


Automobiling  in  California  367 

county  highways  are  increased  in  vahie,  new  sections 
are  being  opened  up  and  settled,  every  farmer,  merchant 
and  automobile  owner  in  the  State  is  directly  and  im- 
mediately benefited,  and  visitors  to  the  State  are  given 
an  opportunity  to  know  it  as  a  whole  in  a  short  space 
of  time,  such  as  before  good  roads  would  have  required 
the  travel  of  a  lifetime. 

To  attempt,  therefore,  in  this  chapter  to  do  more  than 
suggest  what  the  visiting  automobilist  may  enjoy  in 
California  is  merely  to  take  him  along  the  2,700  miles 
of  highway  and  county  roads  that  by  the  time  this  book 
is  issued  will  be  practically  completed.  There  are  a 
few  broad  suggestions,  however,  that  may  be  thrown 
out  to  advantage. 

No  other  State  in  the  Union  offers  so  many  oppor- 
tunities to  the  automobilist  as  does  California.  It  is 
both  Mecca  and  Paradise.  For  several  years  past  the 
number  has  constantly  increased  of  those  who  have  come 
over  the  more  or  less  rough  and  rugged  desert  and 
mountain  routes  and  when  the  transcontinental  roads 
are  completed  it  is  safe  to  prophesy  that  thousands  will 
come  over  them. 

Though  it  is  a  truism,  it,  nevertheless,  will  bear  repe- 
tition that  California  is  unique  in  the  comprehensive- 
ness of  its  scenery.  Everything  is  here  provided,  from 
the  highest  snow-clad  mountain  summits  to  the  playas  — 
alkaline  beds  of  extinct  lakes  —  and  sandy  desert  wastes 
below  sea-level. 

Around  Mount  Shasta  one  may  motor  day  after  day, 
scarcely  for  a  moment  losing  sight  of  the  Fuji-San  of 
Northern  California,  while  at  the  same  time  enjoying 
enchanting  miles  through  glorious  forest  isles,  or  exhil- 
arating whirls  up  and  down  foothills  or  through  the 
canyons  of  the  upper  reaches  of  the  McCloud  and  Sac- 


368     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

ramento  Rivers,  where  their  cool  waters  are  whipped 
into  foamy  whiteness  by  their  mad  rush  to  the  lower 
levels. 

In  the  Napa  and  Sonoma  Valleys  one  passes  through 
lanes  of  enchantment  where  sweet-smelling  vineyards 
extend  for  scores  of  miles.  The  ascent  of  the  Toll 
House  road  over  the  shoulders  of  Mount  St.  Helena 
into  the  Lake  Country  brings  one  past  the  immediate 
region  made  memorable  by  the  well  beloved  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  in  his  Sik'crado  Squatters.  If  one  has 
time  to  stop  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  he  may  see  the 
bubbling  hot  springs  at  Calistoga  and  enjoy  a  mud-bath 
there.  Then,  after  the  ascent,  up  which  even  to-day 
the  six-horse  stage  coaches  climb  their  tortuous  way 
along  ravines  and  canyons  that  have  always  thrilled  the 
fearful  traveller,  at  the  Toll  House  he  may  see,  perhaps, 
the  inflowing  of  the  ocean  fog  as  described  by  Stevenson. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  mountain  the  road  continues 
its  winding  way  through  groves  of  pines  and  other  ever- 
greens, livened  up  here  and  there  by  the  ligliier  coloured 
sycamores  and  aspens  growing  near  the  mountain 
streams  until  the  lake  region  is  reached.  No  Words- 
worth, Southey,  Lamb  or  Ruskin  has  glorified  the  Cali- 
fornia Lake  region,  but  to  tliose  interested  in  aboriginal 
life  and  lore,  many  a  day  may  be  spent  visiting  ranche- 
rias  of  the  Indians,  watching  the  iiiaJwlas  with  marvel- 
lous dexterity  weave  their  incomparable  baskets.  Here 
are  women  who  take  the  glowing  feathers  from  the  top- 
knots or  breasts  of  gorgeous  plumaged  birds,  the  willows 
from  the  near-by  creeks,  and  the  roots  that  they  dig 
up  from  the  tule  swamps  and  make  of  them  poems  and 
symphonies  of  colour  and  weaving  that  ecjual  in  artistic 
skill  the  finest  work  of  the  Persian  rug-makers  and  that 
emulate  in  dazzling  glory  the   radiance  of  the  sunrise 


THE    SACRAMENTO    CANYON. 


Automobiling  in  California  369 

or  sunget.  One  weaver  has  shown  herself  an  adept  in 
niakdng  baskets  so  tiny  that  when  one  shows  them  to 
his  friends  they  laugh  him  to  scorn  when  he  assures 
them  that  they  are  the  work  of  human  fingers,  made 
without  a  microscope.  Everybody  takes  them  for  seeds, 
and  yet  careful  observation  reveals  them  as  woven  mas- 
terpieces, requiring  a  manual  and  digital  skill  and  dex- 
terity that  seem  almost  inconceivable,  for  some  of  these 
tiny  baskets  are  so  small  that  the  top  of  a  small  collar- 
button  is  larger  than  three  or  four  of  them  combined. 

To  those  automobilists,  however,  who  are  not  inter- 
ested in  Indians,  there  is  enough  of  allurement  in  the 
scenery  to  prove  attractive,  for  one  may  climb  out  from 
the  Lake  Country  over  the  mountains  on  either  side.  If 
he  goes  to  the  right  when  facing  the  north,  he  comes 
into  the  Sacramento  Valley  with  its  thousands  of  blos- 
soming acres,  where  fruit  trees  of  every  description  are 
taking  the  place  of  the  foiTuer  vast  wdieat-fields.  If 
he  goes  to  the  left,  he  finally  comes  into  the  redwood 
region,  where  day  after  day  the  roads  wind  through 
dense  forests  of  giant  redwoods  which  as  yet  are  too 
far  away  from  easy  transportation  to  attract  the  crews 
of  devastating  ax-men  and  loggers  whose  only  thought, 
as  they  look  at  a  glorious  arboreal  monarch  is :  "  How 
many  feet  of  lumber  will  he  make?  " 

Then,  there  are  roads  along  the  seashore,  some  of 
them  passing  by  rugged  headlands  that  suggest  the 
"  stern  rock-bound  shores "  of  Mrs.  Hemans'  poem, 
while  others  are  along  smooth  and  sandy  beaches  where 
the  surf  comes  rolling  in  from  the  placid  ocean  beyond. 

Imagine  the  delight  of  days  of  motoring  up  and  down 
the  Sierras.  From  Sacramento,  Merced,  Stockton, 
Fresno,  and  a  score  of  other  valley  towns,  one  may 
start   for  excursions   of  endless  pleasure.     Up  and   up 


370     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

to  the  mountain  crests,  foaming  streams  first  on  one 
side  and  then  on  the  other,  clumps  of  trees  variegating 
the  landscape,  large  areas  wihere  the  devastating  hand 
of  man  has  cleared  away  the  forests,  other  areas  where 
man's  constructive  hand  is  manifested  in  the  planting 
of  orchards,  higher,  higher,  the  roads  wind  until  Yo- 
semite,  Hetch-Hetchy,  King's  River  Canyon,  Kern 
River  Canyon,  innumerable  hot  springs  resorts.  Lake 
Talioe,  Webber  Lake,  Wawona,  the  varying  groves  of 
Sequoia  Gigantea,  and  the  icy  glaciers  which  line  the 
peaks  of  the  High  Sierras  are  reached. 

Once  arrived,  it  is  well  to  allow  the  machine  to  rest 
awhile,  the  traveller  going  on  foot  or  horseback  to 
innumerable  places  of  pleasure  Nature  provides  with 
such  a  lavish  hand.  Waterfalls,  cascades,  lakes,  glaciers, 
mountain  summits,  romantic  caverns,  mossy  dells, 
fiower-bejewelled  slopes,  sihady  forest  recesses  where 
rare  orchids  bloom,  deep  canyons,  sheltered  'Spots  where 
Indians  make  their  summer  homes,  all  invite  the  curious 
and  observant.  The  hunter  may  take  his  gun  or  riile; 
the  fisherman,  his  rod  and  line;  the  botanist,  his  flower- 
wallet;  the  butterfly  catcher,  his  net;  the  geologist,  his 
hammer;  the  bird-lover,  his  opera  glasses;  the  photog- 
rapher, his  camera;  and  each  and  all  will  find  adequate 
occupation. 

On  the  Monterey  peninsula  and  in  the  Santa  Cruz 
moiuitains  there  are  equal  delights  for  the  sightseer, 
sportsman  and  scientist.  Magnificently  equipped  hotels 
provide  stopping-places  from  which  one  may  radiate 
at  will.  To-day  the  objective  point  may  be  a  pebbly 
beach  by  the  Pacific ;  to-morrow,  a  golf  or  polo  tourna- 
ment; the  next  day  some  delightful  lounging  place  on 
a  mountain  height  near  a  spring  of  cold  mountain  water ; 
another  day  finds  one  coursing  up  and  down  the  Santa 


AutomoWling  in  California  371 

Clara  Valley,  amazed  at  its  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
richly  blossoming  prune  trees  or  enjoying"  the  sight  of 
the  ripening  fruit,  or  the  equally  interesting  period  of 
gathering,  when  armies  of  men  and  women  pick  the 
fruit,  long  processions  of  wagons  conveying  it  to  the 
driers  and  canneries,  where  other  armies  take  it  and 
either  can  it  or  spread  it  out  on  trays  for  the  sun  to  dry, 
whence  it  is  carefully  packed  ready  to  be  sent  to  the 
four  quarters  of  the  globe. 

The  San  Joaquin  Valley  is  equally  interesting  with 
its  scores  of  miles  of  vineyards,  fig,  olive,  peach,  apricot, 
walnut  and  almond  orchards,  and  its  towering  moun- 
tain heights  ranged  in  majestic  grandeur  on  each  side. 
At  the  upper  end,  not  far  from  Stockton,  one  may  see 
the  fertile  lands  stolen  from  the  San  Joaquin  and  other 
rivers,  where  crops  of  asparagus,  potatoes  and  the  like, 
are  taken  in  such  immense  quantities  as  almost  to  stag- 
ger belief.  At  Fresno  one  may  see  the  raisin-seeders  at 
work,  those  marvellous  machines  that  accomplish  the 
apparently  impossible,  extracting  the  seeds  from  the 
raisins  with  a  speed  and  dexterity  more  than  human. 
At  the  proper  season,  picturesque  bands  of  Chinese, 
Japanese,  Hindus  and  Swedish  and  Danish  grape-pickers 
may  ijc  found  at  work.  This  whole  valley  w-as  once 
an  inland  sea,  then  the  home  of  nomad  Indians  and 
bands  of  wild  elk,  deer,  and  antelope,  then  the  site  of 
some  of  the  largest  grain  fields  in  the  world,  where 
immense  machinery  had  to  be  invented  in  order  to  har- 
vest the  enormous  crops.  Now  it  is  the  scene  of  tens  of 
thousands  of  small  farms,  on  which  the  happy  and  pros- 
perous ow^ners  have  built  simple,  picturesque  or  ornate 
residences,  and  from  the  fruitful  acres  of  which  millions 
of  tons  of  produce  for  the  feeding  of  mankind  and  the 
lower  animals  are  annually  shipped. 


372     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

On  the  eastern  'slopes  of  the  Sierras,  Mount  Wihitney, 
Mono  Lake,  Owens  Lake,  and  scores  more  of  natural 
objects  of  great  interest  and  curiosity  offer  their  alluj-e- 
ment.  Good  roads  have  been  provided  even  here,  and 
one  may  go  up  into  the  Lake  Tahoe  region  or  to  the 
Yosemite  or  through  into  Nevada  by  this  route. 

Southern  California  also  offers  its  incomparable  at- 
tractions. Winter  and  summer  are  alike  here  seasons 
of  delectation  and  enjoyment,  unless  one  happens  to 
strike  unusually  heavy  rains  (such  as  occurred  in  Jan- 
uary and  February,  1914),  or  the  occasional  hot  v^^inds 
that  blow  in  from  the  desert  during  the  summer  months. 

It  is  hard  for  people  unfamiliar  with  California  to 
believe  that  we  who  live  here  mean  what  we  say  when 
we  affirm  and  reaffirm  that  in  the  major  part  of  Cali- 
fornia it  is  equally  delightful  both  summer  and  winter. 
There  is  neither  winter  nor  summer,  as  these  terms  are 
generally  used  and  understood  in  the  North,  East  and 
Middle  West. 


CHAPTER    XXV 

THE    FESTIVAL    SPIRIT    IN    CALIFORNIA 

Does  enviromnent  affect  the  spirits  of  people? 

Taine  and  scores  of  authorities,  literary  and  scientific, 
affirm  that  it  does.  I  do  not  propose  any  attempt  to 
answer  the  question,  but  merely  to  state  the  fact  that 
something  in  California  has  produced  a  Festival  Spirit 
not  observable  to  like  extent  elsewhere  on  the  American 
Continent,  and  in  many  respects,  equalling  that  found 
among  the  Latin  races  of  Europe. 

Furthermore,  the  outcome  of  this  spirit  is  such  that 
I  venture  the  affirmation  that  California  has  more  varied, 
distinctive  and  peculiarly  appropriate  festivals  than  any 
country  in  the  w^orld. 

Like  all  other  States  California  has  its  historic  pag- 
eants and  festivals.  These  commemorate  in  striking 
fashion  the  chief  events  in  which  their  particular  cities 
are  concerned  or  interested,  as,  for  instance,  San  Diego 
and  Cabrillo.  its  discoverer;  Monterey  and  Padre  Ji-ini- 
pero  Serra,  the  founder  of  its  mission ;  San  Francisco, 
and  Portola,  the  discoverer  of  its  glorious  Bay,  and  Bal- 
boa, the  discoverer  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

N'aturally  in  these  carnivals  great  stress  is  placed  upon 
the  spirit  of  the  heroes  honoured.  As  I  wrote  at  the 
time  of  the  Portola  festival  in  the  San  Francisco  Exam- 
iner in  reference  to  Balboa : 

Who  can  think  of  that  wonderful  trip  made  over  the 
isthmus  by  the  gallant  Balboa  with  his  handful  of  eighty 

373 


374     Galifornia,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

soldiers  and  not  be  thrilled  to  the  marrow  ?  He  had  not 
amounted  to  much  in  his  earlier  years.  He  had  fooled 
away  much  of  his  time  and  disappointed  his  parents  and 
friends,  but  when  the  time  of  stress  came,  he  was  there. 
All  the  manhood  there  was  in  him  arose  and  asserted 
itself. 

He  cried  out  to  Fate :  Bring  on  hardships,  starvation, 
hostile  Indians,  swamps,  forests,  tangled  jungles,  quick- 
sands, impassable  mountains,  fevers,  plagues,  poisonous 
and  miasmic  vapours ;  bring  them  on  —  I  dare,  defy, 
laugh  at  them  all. 

Nay !  I'll  not  wait  for  you  to  bring  them.  I  will  come 
to  meet  them ;  I  will  fall  upon  the  Indians  in  their  sleep ; 
I  will  steal  unexpected  marches  through  the  treacherous 
and  dangerous  forests,  quicksands  and  swamps ;  I  will 
make  tracks  over  the  mountain  before  you  know ;  I  will 
meet,  conquer  and  triumph,  for  I  and  my  men  possess 
the  "  unconquerable  souls  of  heroes,"  we  are  gods, 
though  in  the  germ. 

That  was  the  spirit  of  Balboa.  He  knew  no  defeat, 
no  discouragement,  no  disheartenment,  and  that  is  one 
reason  why  San  F'rancisco  honours  him. 

In  these  festivals,  however,  California  is  Httle  different 
from  all  States  that  hold  historic  celebrations.  Yet  in 
other  and  entirely  unique  ways.  California  is  preemi- 
nently a  festival  State.  Every  month,  throughout  the 
year,  some  portion  of  it  is  in  a  state  of  carnival. 

And  the  wonder  is  that  the  festivals,  the  carnivals, 
the  jollifications,  are  so  varied.  There  is  no  monotony, 
no  duplication.  In  addition  to  the  historic  carnivals 
there  are  climate  carnivals  —  although  that  is  not  the 
name  they  go  by  —  as,  for  instance,  the  Pasadena  Tour- 
nament of  Roses,  held  on  New  Year's  day  for  the  past 
twenty-three  years   to   demonstrate   to  the   world  what 


The  Festival  Spirit  in  California     '  375 

wonderful  ilovver  displays  California  can  pnxluce  in 
the  depth  of  winter. 

At  the  same  hour  that  the  floral  festivities  are  going 
on  in  Pasadena  a  snow  carnival  is  being  held  in  the 
Yosemite  Valley,  where  tobogganing,  sleighing,  snow- 
shoeing,  snowballing,  skating,  and  all  the  sports  of  win- 
ter are  being  held  amid  the  most  stupendous  and  glo- 
riously beautiful  scenery  of  the  American  Continent. 

Down  at  the  beaches  of  Redondo.  Venice  and  Long 
Beach  water  carnivals  are  held  at  times  of  the  year 
when  Atlantic  bathers  would  dread  the  shock  of  the  icy 
cold  waters  of  their  ocean,  and  Christmas  Eve  sees  scones 
of  thousands  of  San  Franciscans  on  the  streets  that  con- 
verge towards  Lotta's  fountain  on  Market  Street,  listen- 
ing to  the  ravishing  strains  of  Kubelik's  violin,  or  the 
flute-like  warbhngs  and  trillings  of  Teitrazzi-ni's  match- 
less voice. 

Every  day  of  the  year,  practically  winter  and  summer 
alike,  the  great  Greek  theatre  at  Berkeley  is  a  festival 
hall,  where  the  population  of  the  bay  cities  meet  uncon- 
sciously to  celebrate  California's  marvellous  climate. 
For  winter  and  summer,  autumn  and  spring  it  is  ever 
open  for  concerts,  recitals,  plays,  dramas,  lectures,  ser- 
mons and  the  like,  and  its  eight  thousand  seats  are  often 
occupied  and  the  standing  room  for  two  thousand  addi- 
tional people  taken  advantage  of.  And,  by  the  way, 
California  is  getting  the  open-air  theatre  habit.  Ma- 
dame Tingley  long  ago  built  an  exquisite  Greek  temple 
and  theatre  on  the  Pacific  shore  of  Point  Loma,  near 
San  Diego.  Avalon,  on  Catalina  Island,  Pomona,  Mon- 
rovia and  several  other  towns  have  them,  and  now  Colo- 
nel Griffiths,  of  Los  Angeles,  is  building  one  for  the  City 
of  the  Angels  that  will  seat  frqm  ten  to  thirty  thousand 
people,  and  with  a  possibility  of  enlargement  to  three 


376     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

times  that  size,  and  San  Diego's  is  nearly  completed 
on  the  hill  overlooking  the  Harbour  of  the  Sun. 

Then,  while  other  States  have  their  golf  and  tennis 
tournaments,  few  have  them  winter  and  summer  alike, 
and  California  adds  to  these  the  joyous  and  exhilarating 
game  of  polo.  Tournaments  of  one  or  other,  or  all 
three  of  these  sports  are  held  at  Pasadena,  Hotel  Del 
Monte,  San  Rafael,  Hotel  Del  Coronado,  and  a  score 
of  other  places.  Hayward  and  Vacaville  have  their 
cherry  carnivals,  Sevastopol  and  Watsonville  their  apple 
carnivals,  Placerville  its  pear  carnival,  San  Bernardino 
its  national  orange  show,  Redondo  its  Easter  carnation 
festival ;  Lodi,  St.  Helena  and  Fresno  their  grape  car- 
nivals, to  which  Fresno  adds  its  raisin  carnival. 

This  latter  celebration  is  growing  into  nation-wide 
fame,  owing  to  the  distribution  of  thousands  of  pounds 
of  raisins  throughout  the  land.  Granted  it  has  a  com- 
mercial side,  it's  "  magnificent  advertising."  Is  it  not  a 
tribute  to  something  in  the  Fresno  people  that  they  can 
plan,  and  carry  out  such  advertising,  and  do  it  in  the 
Spirit  that  makes  a  real  carnival  of  it  at  home?  Fur- 
thermoTe  it  is  a  real  people's  festival.  It  is  sometliing 
they  want,  pay  for,  plan  for.  arrange  and  carry  out 
themselves.  All  the  cost  is  borne  by  themselves,  and 
mainly  in  small  sums.  And  this  is  equally  true  of  all 
the  California  festivals.  They  are  made  possible  by 
the  small  contributions  of  the  many  people  personally 
interested. 

To  return,  however,  to  the  Festivals  themselves. 
Blythe  and  El  Centro  —  the  one  in  the  Palo  Verde  and 
the  other  in  the  Imperial  Vallev  —  both  hold  cotton 
festivals,  for  they  now  grow  Egyptian  cotton,  with 
finer,  longer  and  stronger  staple  than  any  produced  in 
the  South. 


The  Festival  Spirit  in  California       377 

And  these  are  only  some  of  the  harvest  festivals  of 
California,  for  there  are  a  dozen  others,  like  the  Har- 
vest Home  festival  of  Bishop,  the  hop  festival  of  Chico, 
the  beet  festival  of  Oxnard,  the  sweet  potato  and  Ber- 
muda onion  festival  of  Coachella  Valley  and  the  date 
festival  of  Mecca. 

Berkeley  has  an  annual  aquatic  festival.  Carmel-by- 
the-Sea  its  historic  pageant  and  open-air  play,  the  Bohe- 
mians of  San  Francisco  their  marvellous  woods  jinks 
in  their  grove  by  the  Russian  River;  Escondido  its 
grape  carnival;  Cloverdale  its  citrus  fair;  Concord  its 
walnut  carnival.  Elmhurst  has  an  autumn  carnival  and 
Van  Nuys  a  poppy  festival. 

Healdsburg  a  combined  harvest  home  festival  and 
an  aquatic  carnival  on  the  Russian  River,  Oroville  and 
Crescent  City,  Santa  Cruz  and  Monte  Rio,  all  have 
water  carnivals ;  Holtville,  on  the  Colorado  desert,  a 
New  Year's  day  festival,  triumphantly  commemorative 
of  its  winter  agricultural  and  horticultural  products ; 
Los  Banos,  San  Francisco,  Pasadena  and  a  score  of 
other  cities  have  May  Day  festivals;  Monterey  its  Fra 
Junipero  Serra  day ;  Oakland  its  Columbus  carnival ; 
Mt.  Tamalpais  its  mountain  forest  play;  Pacific  Grove 
its  lantern  festival. 

Petaluma  has  its  poultry  fete;  San  Gabriel  its  Mis- 
sion play ;  San  Leandro  its  cherry-ripe  carnival ;  Santa 
Clara  its  Passion  Play;  Santa  Cruz  its  orchid  festival; 
Santa  Rosa  its  rose  festival  and  battle  of  flowers;  Ukiah 
its  hop  festival  and  Ventura  its  San  Miguel  day. 

The  latest  of  all  of  California's  characteristic  festi- 
vals to  make  a  bid  for  popular  favour,  which  it  gained 
in  a  remarkable  degree  was  the  Winter  Straw  Hat  Pa- 
rade of  San  Diego.  Fortunately  I  happened  to  be  pres- 
ent, and,  crowned  with  a  gigantic  Spanish  straw  som- 


378     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

brero,  joined  the  revellers  after  witnessing  the  proces- 
sion. It  was  several  miles  in  length  and  everybody, 
even  the  mascot  horses,  dogs,  goats  and  a  waddling 
duck,  wore  straw  hats,  and  the  date  was  February  the 
second.  Most  of  the  men  and  boy  paraders  were  in 
their  shirt-sleeves,  for  comfort,  and  the  ladies  were 
all  clothed  in  their  lightest  summer  raiment,  for,  it  is 
a  climatic  fact  that,  as  a  rule,  February  in  San  Diego 
is  one  of  the  warmest  months  of  the  year.  The  Straw 
Hat  Club  began  as  a  jest,  but,  finally,  a  clear-headed 
citizen  saw  opportunity  to  make  a  day's  unique  celebra- 
tion out  of  it,  and  this  successful  parade  was  its  result. 

In  the  brief  account  thus  given  of  these  festivals  I 
have  written  entirely  from  memory,  and  make  no  pre- 
tence that  the  list  is  complete.  Where  can  any  other 
country  make  such  a  showing? 

Is  it  not  well  to  look  at  the  psychology  of  these  car- 
nival events?  What  is  the  secret  behind  them?  Is  it 
not  an  unconscious,  or  conscious,  expression  of  thank- 
fulness to  God  for  the  superlative  advantages  California 
offers  to  her  sons  and  daughters  —  advantages  they  are 
not  slow  to  avail  themselves  of.  advantages  a^  varied 
and  many  as  they  are  remarkable  and  unique? 

To  some  it  may  appear  ahnost  a  sacrilege  to  place  a 
festival  or  pleasure  carnival  in  the  same  category  as  a 
Thanksgiving  service,  but  I  do  so  place  it,  and  without 
any  hesitation  or  misgiving.  We  have  hypnotized  our- 
selves too  long  with  the  belief  that  "  religious  "  exercises 
and  expressions  must  be  conducted  in  a  church,  in  a 
formal,  solemn  and  dignified  manner. 

These  methods  are  all  right,  but  to  assume  that  they 
are  the  only  legitimate  methods  of  expressing  thankful- 
ness is  both  ridiculous  and  absurd. 

The  California  mocking-bird  is  so  full  of  thankful  joy 


The  Festival  Spirit  in  California       379 

that  he  can't  express  it  in  the  ordinary  twelve  hours 
of  daylight.  He  gets  up  and  sings  half  the  night  to  get 
rid  of  it  —  or  as  one  schoolboy  happily  expressed  it  in 
his  vernacular,  "  to  get  tlie  joy  off  his  chest." 

As  for  the  thrush,  Browning  expresses  my  idea  of 
him  perfectly  where  he  says : 

"  And  he  sings  each  song  twice  over 
Lest  you  should  think  he  cannot  recapture 
That  first,  fine,  careless  rapture." 

Sings  each  song  twice  over  in  the  passion  of  delight 
that  he  feels ! 

There  you  have  it!  The  natural  spirit  of  thankful 
joy  that  cannot  keep  silent  if  it  would.  That  is  the 
spirit  of  all  the  real,  spontaneous  festivals  and  carnivals 
of  California.  And  the  nearer  they  approximate  to  the 
wild,  simple,  natural  rapture  of  the  bird  the  more  real 
and  effective  they  are.  The  less  formal  they  are  the 
better.  For  the  natural  and  spontaneous  always  mean 
more,  express  more,  are  more  than  the  formal  and 
affected. 


CHAPTER    XXVI 

THE    INFLUENCE    OF    CALIFORNIA    UPON    LITERATURE 

It  is  given  to  many  countries  and  states  to  possess 
creators  of  literature  of  a  higher  or  lower  class,  and 
for  this  gift  of  the  gods  those  whom  fortune  has  left 
to  be  mere  readers  are  grateful.  But  to  few  countries 
has  it  been  given  that  they,  m  themselves,  are  stimu- 
lators of  literature,  that  they  fire  the  soul,  arouse  the 
intellect  and  demand  of  the  creator  a  definite  place  in 
bis  literary  creations.  Switzerland,  Italy,  Fi-ance,  Eng- 
land, Greece,  have  all  influenced  literature  in  this  re- 
spect, to  a  greater  or  a  lesser  degree.  Every  English- 
man fully  knows  this  as  he  recalls  Browning's  Home 
Thoughts  from  Abroad;  and  Mrs.  Browning's  Casa 
Giiidi  Windows,  Byron's  Childc  Harold,  Tyndal's  Rec- 
reations in  the  Alps,  will  serve  ais  illustrations  for  Italy, 
Greece  and  Switzerland. 

But  I  doubt  whether  any  country  has  so  definitely 
influenced  literature  of  a  high  quality  as  has  California. 
Certainly  no  part  of  the  United  States,  no,  nor  the  whole 
of  it  combined.  For  instance,  I  have  elsewhere  shown 
how  the  Sierra  Nevadas  have  inspired  great  writings. 
I  have  made  references  to,  and  some  quotations  from, 
Clarence  King's  Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra  Nei'ada 
and  John  Muir's  Mountains  of  California.  To  the  most 
exacting  critic,  even  of  the  rigid  and  formal  academic 
type,  these  books  are  pure  literature:  personally  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  declare  them  classic.     Add  to  these  Muir's 

380 


Influence  of  California  upon  Literature  381 

Yosemite  I 'alley  ,and  My  First  Summer  in  the  Sierras, 
J.  Smeaton  Chase's  Yosemite  Trails  and  Joaquin  Mil- 
ler's Songs  of  the  Sierras,  First  Fanmlies  of  the  Sierras, 
and  Shadozvs  of  Mt.  Shasta,  together  with  Joseph  Le 
Conte's  Ranihlings  in  the  Sierras,  and  the  mass  of  ex- 
cellent descriptive  material  found  in  the  Bulletins  of  the 
Sierra  Club,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Sierras  are 
answerable  for  much  that  can  truthfully  be  called  liter- 
ature. 

In  another  chapter  Bret  Harte's  vivid  descriptions  of 
California,  both  in  prose  and  poetry,  are  recalled.  He 
was  saturated  with  what  he  saw  and  felt,  and  the  Santa 
Cruz  Mountains  and  especially  the  placer-mining  camp 
regions  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  foothills,  from  Plumas 
County,  where  O'ne  Horse  Gulch  was  located,  to  Tuol- 
umne County,  in  which  Sonora,  Jackass  Flat,  Tuttle- 
town  and  Dow's  Flat  were  situated. 

Equa'lly  entitled  to  consideration  with  Bret  Harte's 
best  descriptive  work  is  W.  C.  Bartlett's  book  of  nature 
essays,  A  Brecne  From  the  Woods.  Full  of  a  quaint,  dry 
humour,  exquisite  in  description,  saturated  with  keen 
sympathy  and  understanding  this  little  volume  is  its 
own  passport.  No  one  can  challenge  its  right.  Every 
page  is  stamped  with  its  author's  gei^ius. '  The  first 
essay  gave  the  book  its  title,  and  it  originally  appeared 
as  the  premier  article  in  the  Overland  Monthly  in  the 
palmy  days  of  Bret  Harte's  editorship.  There  are 
eleven  essays  or  chapters  in  all,  and  they  are  worthy 
of  Gilbert  White,  John  Burroughs  or  Bradford  Torrey, 
and  yet  are  different  from  them  all  in  the  fine,  rare 
individuality  of  their  author.  What  fascinaibing  pic- 
tures does  not  this  genial  wit,  genuine  Nature-lover  and 
pure  literary  spirit  give  us  of  the  Santa  Cruz  Moun- 
tains,  Mt.   St.   Helena,  valleys  and   redwood   forests  in 


382     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Mendocino  County  and  nooks  and  recesses  fit  to  engage 
the  attention  of  the  gods.  Here  is  one  Httle  quotation 
to  give  a  taste  of  his  style ;  "  Observe  the  strong  tend- 
enc}''  in  men,  even  of  culture,  to  court  the  wildness  and 
rude  energy  of  savage  life.  Let  one  sleep  on  the  ground, 
in  a  mild  climate,  for  three  months,  and  even  the- man 
who  reads  Homer  in  the  original  is  content,  often,  to 
sleep  there  the  rest  of  hi.s  life-time.  It  is  better  to  tame 
the  savage  rather  cautiously,  and  with  some  reserve, 
for  if  he  be  eliminated  wholly,  the  best  relations  witli 
Nature  are  broken  off." 

And  does  the  world  know  that  it  was  the  stimulus 
of  California,  the  oxygen  of  the  spirit  of  the  West,  that 
started  the  fire  of  Mark  Twain's  genius?  Many  a  fire 
never  passes  the  slovi',  incipient  stages  for  lack  of 
oxygen.  California's  open  reaches  and  vast  stretches 
supplied  this  needful  quality  to  Mark  Twain,  and  he 
sprang  forth  into  vivid,  luminous,  warming  fire  that 
never  died  down  so  long  as  he  could  hold  a  pen.  The 
Jumping  Frog  of  Calaveras,  and  those  wonderful  Ta- 
hoe,  Nevada  and  Hawaiian  sketches,  were  some  of  the 
products  of  that  fire.  Surely  the  world  cannot  forget 
its  obligation  to  California  for  Twain. 

It  was  here,  too,  that  Palmer  Cox's  Brownies  were 
born,  and  Chimmie  Fadden's  creator  first  essayed  litera- 
ture in  San  Francisco.  Gellett  Burgess's  fantastic  genius 
and  Wallace  Irwin's  exuberant  humour  were  born  in 
California.  Hashamura  Togo  would  not  be  tickling 
people  under  the  fifth  rib  to-day  had  it  not  been  for 
Irwin's  fife  in  the  Golden  State. 

Even  Bayard  Taylor  owed  much  to  California,  world 
traveller  and  writer  though  he  was.  There  is  nothing 
finer  in  his  poetry  than  The  Pine  Forest  of  Monterey, 
written  on  the  spot  in  1849,  and  elsewhere  in  this  vol- 


Influence  of  California  upon  Literature  383 

ume  are  the  prophecies  the  land  itself  called  forth  from 
1  his  heart  —  one  in  prose,  the  other  in  verse.  It  is  no 
mean  land  that  compels  visions  in  the  heart  and  brain 
of  one  who  has  seen  all  the  cultured  and  wild  lands  of 
earth,  and  this  fact  alone  is  a  speaking  tribute  to  the 
'    compelling  winsomeness  of  California. 

Who  that  has  ever  read  it  can  forget  Edward  Roland  | 
Sill's  Christmas  in  California. 

"  Can  this  be  Christmas  —  sweet  as  May, 
With  drowsy  sun,  and  dreamy  air, 
And  new  grass  pointing  out  the  way 
For  flowers  to  follow,  everywhere  ? 

"  Has  Time  grown  sleepy  at  his  post, 
And  let  the  exiled  summer  back, 
Or  is  it  her  regretful  ghost, 

Or  witchcraft  of  the  almanac  ?  " 

And  all  through  the  twenty-one  stanzas  the  sweet  spirit 
is  caught  and  felt  that  there  culminates : 

"  I  am  His  creature,  and  His  air 

I  breathe,  where'er  ray  feet  may  stand; 
The  angels'  song  rings  everywhere, 
And  all  the  earth  is  Holy  Land." 

Here  is  the  triumph  of  genius  which  is  led  by  the 
immediate,  circumscribed  view  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
universal,  the  all-embracing. 

His  A)non(j  the  Redwoods,  and  his  vivid  pictures  of  . 
Mt.  Shasta  can  never  die,  and  in  his  California  Winter 
one  sees  how  he  loved  the  East  in  spite  of  the  power  the 
new  western  land  had  begun  to  exercise  over  him. 

But  many  who  are  somewhat  familiar  with  his  poetry 
are  not  aware  of  the  rich  treasures  of  his  prose.     Two  j 
of    his    essays  — O/rr    Tame    Humming-birds    and    A 
Rhapsody    of    Clouds  —  could    only   have   been    written 


384     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

by  a  poet  fired  to  swift  expression  by  the  overwhelm- 
ing, tender  lovehness  which  fell  upon  his  eyes.  Ruskin 
.  never  wrote  anything  finer  about  the  clouds  he  so  much 
'  loved  than  did  Sill  in  this  essay,  which  is  full,  too,  of 
interesting  scientific  observations  told  in  the  most  fas- 
cinating manner. 

The  clouds,  or  fogs,  have  inspired  another  fine  piece 
of  literature,  —  written  by  a  scientist,  too,  but  one  with 
a  poetic  soul.  Here  are  his  opening  words :  "  Cowled 
and  penitent  like  a  Friar  of  Orders  Gray,  the  City  [San 
Francisco]  kneels  in  summer  afternoons  upon  the  lower 
steps  of  the  altar  hills.  Beneath  the  cassock  of  fog  — 
a  loosely  woven  serge  —  are  hopes,  prayers,  truth,  and 
gentleness.  But  also  under  that  robe  of  gray  lurk  cun- 
ning, greed,  pride,  aind  pretense.  Like  the  merciful 
mantle  of  charity,  tlie  fog  covers  our  many  sins.  We 
who  love  the  City»  know  that  the  gray  covering  stretched 
overhead,  while  it  dims  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  is  at 
once  our  richest  asset  and  our  greatest  blessing." 

Many  a  singer,  like  poor,  unfortunate  Richard  Realf, 
learned  lessons  of  the  Spirit  in  the  beauty  and  glory, 
the  desert  and  crag  of  California.  What  profounder 
poem  of  the  soul  is  there  in  literature  than  his  Indi- 
rection. 

"  Fair  are  the  flowers  and  the  children,  but  their  subtle  suggestion  is  fairer; 
Rare  is  the  rosebud  of  dawn,  but  the  secret  that  clasps  it  is  rarer; 
Sweet  the  exultance  of  song,  but  the  strain  that  precedes  it  is  sweeter; 
And  never  was  poem  yet  writ,  but  the  meaning  outmastered  the  meter. 


"  Great  are  the  symbols  of  being,  but  that  which  is  symboled  is  greater; 
Vast  the  create  and  beheld,  but  vaster  the  inward  creator; 
Back  of  the  sound  broods  the  silence,  back  of  the  gift  stands  the  giving; 
Back  of  the  hand  that  receives  thrill  the  sensitive  nerves  of  receiving." 

Edwin  Markham,  too,   is   for  ever  indebted  to  Cali- 
'  fornia.     Or  shall  we  put  it  another  way:    The  world 


Influence  of  California  upon  Literature  385 

that  enjoys  Markham  is  for  ever,  etc.     It  was  on  Cali-  , 
fornia  hills  that  he  wrote: 


"  I  ride  on  mountain  tops,  I  ride; 
I  have  found  my  life  and  am  satisfied. 

I  am  lifted  elate  —  the  skies  expand: 
Here  the  world's  heaped  gold  is  a  pile  of  sand. 
Let  men  weary  and  work  in  their  narrow  walls ; 
I  ride  with  the  voices  of  waterfalls." 

Frothingham,  the  biographer  of  Thomas  Starr  King, 
the  silver-tongued  of  the  pulpit,  the  orator  of  the  Sani- 
tary Commission,  whose  soul's  wings  had  taken  flight 
at  sight  of  The  White  Hills  of  Nezv  Hampshire,  says 
that  the  mountains  and  lakes  of  California  inspired  him 
beyond  himself,  so  that  none  of  his  nature  writing 
equalled  two  of  the  sermons  he  wrote  —  one  on  Lake 
Tahoe  and  the  other  on  the  Sierra  Nevadas  —  shortly 
before  he  died. 

Charles  Frederick  Holder,  too,  prince  among  princes 
of  nature  writers,  whose  pen  has  never  rested  for  nearly 
forty  years,  has  received  this  constant  stimulus,  so  that 
his  recent  books  are  as  fresh,  as  exuberant,  as  spon- 
taneous, as  redolent  of  the  wide,  free  spirit  of  Cali- 
fornia as  when  he  first  came  under  its  influence  and 
wrote  his  earliest  little  book  on  Pasadena,  which  is  now 
wiorth  its  weight  in  gold. 

Two  remarkable  books  owe  their  origin  solely  to 
California's  peculiar  desert  influences  —  these  are  John 
C.  Van  Dyke's  The  Desert  and  Mary  Austin's  Land  of  ' 
Little  Rain.  Both  are  unusual,  both  were  hailed  by  the 
critics  of  every  class  with  delight  and  both  are  destined 
to  live  as  literature.  Professor  Van  Dyke,  in  /his  Pref-  ; 
ace-Dedication  contrasts  the  pure  air  and  sunlight  of 
'the  Colorado  and  Mohave  Deserts  with  those  of  Italy 


386     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

and  Egypt,  and  their  colour  with  that  of  Venice,  Cairo 
and  Constantinople.  And  he  is  no  special  advocate  for 
California.  Yet  he  declared  that  "  all  the  glory  of  the 
old  is  as  nothing  to  the  gold  and  purple  and  burning 
crimson  of  this  new  world."  Furthermore  he  said: 
^  "  The  desert  has  gone  a-begging  for  a  word  of  praise 
these  many  years.  It  never  had  a  sacred  poet;  it  has 
in  me  only  a  lover.  But  I  trust  that  you,  and  the  nature- 
loving  public  you  represent,  will  accept  this  record  as 
at  least  truthful.  Given  the  facts  perhaps  the  poet  with 
his  fancies  will  come  hereafter." 

In  reading  this  I  wonder  wihether  Mr.  Van  Dyke  ever 
<  read  Madge  Morris's  poem  To  the  Colorado  Desert, 
or  Joaquin  Miller's  poems,  some  of  which  are  elsewhere 
quoted  in  these  pages.  And  there  are  many  lesser  poets 
who  have  been  stirred  to  lines  of  beauty  and  power  by 
these  same  surpassing  wastes  that  inspired  Mr.  Van 
Dyke's  prose-poem.  For,  from  beginning  to  end,  the 
whole  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  pages  of  this  book 
are  poetry  —  of  description,  of  imagination,  of  science 
—  put  into  prose  form. 

So,  also,  is  Mary  Austin's  book.  There  is  not  a  page 
of  it  that  is  not  rich  in  poetic  fancy  or  description.  It 
was  a  revelation  of  the  chann  and  allurement  to  be 
found  in  the  desert  region  east  of  the  Sierras.  • 

Frank  Norris  was  one  who  speedily  fell  under  the 
spell  of  California  landscapes.  Nothing  came  amiss  to 
him,  from  Mt.  Shasta  to  Death  Valley.  His  pictures 
of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  have  never  been  surpassed, 
and  those  of  the  desert  are  equal  to  Van  Dyke  at  his  best. 
i   Look  at  this  from  McTeagne: 

"  The  day  was  magnificent.  From  horizon  to  horizon 
was  one  vast  span  of  blue,  whitening  as  it  dipped  earth- 
ward.    Miles  upon  miles  to  the  east  and  southeast  the 


Influence  of  California  upon  Literature  387 

desert  unrolled  itself,  white,  naked,  inhospitable,  palpi- 
tating and  shimmering  under  die  sun.  unbroken  by  so 
muoh  as  a  rock  or  cactus  stump.  In  the  distance  it 
assumed  all  manner  of  faint  colours,  pink,  purple,  and 
pale  orange.  To  the  west  roise  the  Panamint  Range, 
sparsely  sprinkled  w  ith  gray  sage-brush ;  here  the  earths 
and  sands  were  yellow,  ochre,  and  rich  deep  red,  the 
hollows  and  canyons  picked  out  with  intense  blue  shad- 
ows. It  seemed  strange  that  such  barrenness  could 
exhibit  this  radiance  of  colour,  but  nothing  could  have 
been  more  beautiful  than  the  deep  red  of  the  higher 
bluffs  and  ridges,  seamed  with  purple  shadows,  stand- 
ing sharply  out  against  the  pale-blue  whiteness  of  the 
horizon. 

"  By  nine  o'clock  the  sun  stood  high  in  the  sky.  The 
heat  was  intense;  the  atmosphere  was  thick  and  heavy 
with  it.  McTeague  gasped  for  breath  and  wiped  the 
beads  of  perspiration  from  his  forehead,  his  cheeks  and 
his  neck.  Every  inch  and  pore  of  his  skin  was  tingling 
and  pricking  under  the  merciless  lash  of  the  sun's 
rays.   .  .   . 

"  The  sun  rose  higher ;  hour  by  hour,  as  he  tramped 
steadily  on,  the  heat  increased.  The  baked  dry  sand 
crackled  into  innumerable  tiny  flakes  under  his  feet. 
The  twigs  of  the  sage-brush  snapped  like  brittle  pipe- 
stems  as  he  pushed  through  them.  It  grew  hotter.  At 
eleven  the  earth  was  like  the  surface  of  a  furnace;  the 
air,  as  McTeague  breathed  it  in,  was  hot  to  his  lips 
and  the  roof  of  his  mouth.  The  sun  was  a  disk  of 
mcJlten  brass  swimming  in  the  burnt-out  blue  of  the 
sky.   ... 

"The  heat  grew  steadily  fiercer;  all  distant  objects 
were  visibly  shimmering  and  palpitating  under  it.  At 
noon  a  mirage  appeared  on  the  hills  to  the  northwest. 


388     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

McTeague  halted  the  mule.  ...  As  soon  as  he  ceased 
his  tramp  and  the  noise  of  his  crunching,  grinding  foot- 
steps died  away,  the  silence,  vast,  illimitable,  enfolded 
him  like  an  immeasurable  tide.  From  all  that  gigantic 
landscape,  that  colossal  reach  of  baking  sand,  there  arose 
not  a  single  sound.  Not  a  twig  rattled,  not  an  insect 
hummed,  not  a  bird  or  beast  invaded  that  huge  solitude 
with  a  call  or  cry.  Everything  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach,  to  north,  to  south,  to  east,  and  west,  lay  inert, 
absolutely  quiet  and  moveless  under  the  remorseless 
scourge  of  the  noon  sun.  The  very  shadows  shrank 
away,  hiding  under  sage-bushes,  retreating  to  the  far- 
thest nooks  and  crevices  in  the  canyons  of  the  hills. 
All  the  w^orld  was  one  blinding  glare,  silent,  motionless." 

There!  It  almost  takes  my  breath  away  to  quote  it, 
for  it  is  not  only  literature,  intense,  vivid,  powerful 
description  by  a  master  hand,  but  it  is  literally  true, 
for  I  have  wandered  over  the  region  as  did  McTeague. 
Think  of  the  idea  that  the  remorseless  scourge  of  the 
noon  sun  was  so  all-reaching  that  it  made  "  the  shadows 
shrink  away,  hiding  under  sage-bushes  and  retreating 
to  the  farthest  nooks  and  crevices  in  the  canyons  of  the 
hiHs."  ' 

Now  set  against  this  some  of  Jack  London's  descrip- 
tions of  the  snow  land  of  the  north,  which  while  written 
I  of  Alaska  are  perfectly  true  of  portions  of  winter  Cali- 
fornia : 

"  Dark  spruce  forest  frowned  on  either  side  the  frozen 
waterway.  The  trees  had  been  stripped  by  a  recent  wind 
of  their  white  covering  of  frost,  and  they  seemed  to  lean 
toward  each  other,  black  and  ominous,  in  the  fading 
light.  A  vast  silence  reigned  over  the  land.  The  land 
itself  was  a  desolation,  lifeless,   without  movement,  so 

*  McTeague,  by  Frank  Norris,  Doubleday  and  McClure  Co.,  New  York. 


Influence  of  California  upon  Literature  389 

lone  and  cold  that  the  spirit  of  it  was  not  even  that  of 
sadness.  There  was  a  hint  in  it  of  laughter,  but  of  a 
laughter  more  terrible  than  any  sadness  —  a  laughter 
that  was  mirthless  as  the  smile  of  the  Sphinx,  a  laugh- 
ter cold  as  tlie  frost  and  partaking  of  the  grimness  of 
infallibility.  It  was  the  masterful  and  incommunicable 
wisdom  of  eternity  laughing  at  the  futility  of  life  and 
the  effort  of  life." 

The  above  from  White  Fang;  the  following  from 
The  Son  of  the  U^olf: 

"  Nature  has  many  tricks  wherewith  she  convinces 
man  of  his  finity,  —  the  ceaseless  flow  of  the  tides,  the 
fury  of  the  storm,  the  shock  of  the  earthquake,  the  long 
roll  of  heaven's  artillery,  —  but  the  most  tremendous, 
the  most  stupefying  of  all,  is  the  passive  phase  of  the 
White  Silence.  All  movement  ceases,  the  sky  clears, 
the  heavens  are  as  brass;  the  slightest  whisper  seems 
sacrilege,  and  man  becomes  timid,  affrighted  at  the 
sound  of  his  own  voice.  Sole  speck  of  life  journeying 
across  the  ghostly  wastes  of  a  dead  world,  he  trembles 
at  his  audacity,  realizes  that  his  is  a  maggot's  life,  noth- 
ing more.  Strange  thoughts  arise  unsummoned,  and 
the  mystery  of  all  things  strives  for  utterance.  And  the 
fear  of  death,  of  God,  of  the  universe,  comes  over  him, 
—  the  hope  of  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life,  the  yearn- 
ing for  immortality,  the  vain  striving  of  the  imprisoned 
essence,  —  it  is  then,  if  ever,  man  walks  alone  with 
God." 

Ramona  is  another  evidence  of  California's  power 
over  literary  genius.  The  wrongs  of  the  Indians,  the 
departed  glory  of  the  Franciscan  Missions,  the  gor- 
geousness  of  the  floral  growths,  the  charm  of  the  moun- 
tains and  valleys,  the  beauty  of  the  trees  are  all  set 
forth  in  its  pages  and  help  to  keep  it  the  "  best  seller  " 


390     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

of  American  novels  for  a  continuous  period  of  over 
thirty  years. 

Jack  London's  books,  some  of  them,  are  fairly  sat- 
urated, as  he  himself  is,  with  California.  Merely  to 
name  the  books  that  revel  in  accurate  descriptions, 
limned  with  a  master  hand,  would  be  to  fill  one  or  two 
pages  of  this  volume.  He  has  for  ever  immortalized 
Sonoma,  "  the  Valley  of  the  Moon,"  where  he  lives, 
Oakland,  the  Piedmont  and  Berkeley  Hills,  and  the  Bay 
of  San  Francisco. 

So,  also,  has  Gertrude  .Vtherton  utilized  her  home 
country  and  cities  in  some  of  her  most  powerful  novels. 

Poetry  and  romance !  romance  and  poetry !  How- 
could  the  poet  keep  still  when  he  found  himself  in  an 
atmosphere  redolent  of  poetry  and  romance.  When 
John  S.  McGroarty's  feet  t(mched  El  Camino  Real  — 
the  King's  Highway  —  he  burst  into  song: 

"  It's  a  long  road  and  sunny,  and  the  fairest  in  the  world  — 
There  are  peaks  that  rise  above  it  in  their  snowy  mantles  curled, 
And  it  leads  from  the  mountains  through  a  hedge  of  chaparral, 
Down  to  the  waters  where  their  sea  gulls  call. 

"  It's  a  long  road  and  sunny,  it's  a  long  road  and  old. 
And  the  brown  padres  made  it  for  the  flocks  of  the  fold; 
They  made  it  for  the  sandals  of  the  sinner-folk  that  trod 
From  the  fields  in  the  open  to  the  shelter-hoi^se  of  God." 

Marah  Ellis  Ryan,  whose  Told  in  the  Hills  has  thrilled 
countless  thousands  both  in  book  form  and  on  the  stage, 
came  to  California,  and  immediately,  like  Helen  Hunt 
Jackson,  she  yielded  to  the  aillurement  of  the  climate, 
the  scenery,  the  old  Franciscan  Missions  and  the  Indians, 
and,  taking  up  a  year's  residence  in  the  padre's  room 
at  the  Mission  of  San  Juan  Capistrano,  wrote  her  For 
the  Soul  of  Rafael.     Constance  Goddard  Du  Bois  fell 


Influence  of  California  upon  Literature  391 

under  the  same  spell,  and  gave  the  world  a  literary  gem 
in  A  Soul  in  Bronze. 

The  curse  of  the  world  in  all  ages  has  been  the  dom- 
ination of  the  past,  the  bondage  to  dead  men's  ideas, 
the  cringing  spirit  of  imitation.  Genius  has  been  stifled 
because  in  its  unconsciousness  it  dared.  Before  sophis- 
tication it  sang  out  in  its  natural  strains  and  because 
these  were  tuned  differently,  rhythmed  to  a  different 
meter,  and  especially  when  they  dared  a  new  theme, 
or  new  treatment  the  Old  arose  and  smote  with  bloody 
hand  and  the  rest  of  the  choir  drew  back  afraid. 

But,  thank  God,  the  pure  sweet  voices  of  the  unso- 
phisticated could  not  all  be  restrained,  and  glad  uncon- 
sciousness has  winged  their  songs  into  the  air,  and, 
somehow,  California  has  gendered  greater  daring,  more 
stalwart  bravery  in  its  indifference  and  bold  defiance 
of  standard  themes  and  methods  of  treatment,  than  is 
found  elsewhere.  Hence  there  is  as  rich  a  variety  in  its 
literature  as  in  its  scenery,  and  as  great  a  gamut  as  in 
its  climate  and  topography. 

And  one  of  its  chief  values  to  the  world  is  that  very 
freedom,  spontaneity,  naturalness.  Its  insistent  cry  is 
that  shouted  aloud  by  Wordsw^orth,  Shdlley,  Ruskin. 
Browning,  Carlyle,  and  that  the  world  must  hear  and 
heed  if  it  would  live  in  healthful  happiness. 

Another  difference  is  in  the  rugged  strength  of  its 
songs.  As  one  of  its  own  singers  has  said,  California 
seems  to  have  grown  weary  of  the  weak,  effeminate 
voices  that  murmur  and  moan  and  complain,  and  has 
demanded  stronger,  more  real  and  rugged,  living  voices : 

"  I  am  tired  of  effeminate  singers, 
Who  mutter  a  bitter  refrain; 
Whose  nervous  intractable  fingers 
Strike  discords  again  and  again. 


392     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

O  give  me  a  music  that  lingers 

Like  dawn  on  a  storm-driven  main; 
Like  bells  out  at  sea,  when  the  ringers 

Take  heart  and  take  hope  from  the  strain." 

So  from  its  crags  and  peaks,  its  canyons  and  forests 
have  come  the  strong,  stalwart  voices  of  Miller  and 
Markham,  Bierce  and  Tv^ain,  Realf  and  Sterling,  Lon- 
don and  Atherton,  Austin  and  Bartlett,  in  prose  and 
poetic  melodies  of  radiant  manhood  and  womanhood, 
and  all  combining  to  make  a  harmonic  chorus  that  shall 
delight,  instruct  and  enthuse  the  world. 


CHAPTER    XXVII 
California's  influence  upon  art 

One  of  the  catchwords  that  began  to  have  tremen- 
dous vogue  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century 
was  "  Environment."  Our  scientific  philosophers  in- 
sisted that  even  the  hitherto  supposedly  all-potent  force 
of  heredity  was  compelled  to  yield  to  the  later  and 
greater  power  of  Environment.  And  thereupon  began 
to  creep  into  our  methods  of  education  a  new  note. 
Literature  and  history  responded  to  it,  so  that  now,  in 
tracing  the  history,  past  or  potential,  of  any  person  or 
nation,  Environment  is  accorded  a  great  and  influential 
place.  Taine,  in  his  masterly  analysis  of  English  litera- 
ture has  shown  us  the  effect  Environment  had  upon  its 
development  and  manifestations,  and  all  the  recent  wri- 
ters on  Greece  and  Grecian  history  attribute  the  light- 
heartedness  and  physical  perfection  of  the  nation  by 
the  yEgean  Sea  to  the  radiant  climatic  conditions  with 
which  they  were  surrounded. 

The  chapter  on  Literature  briefly  shows  how  Cali- 
fornia has  influenced  this  manifestation  of  man's 
thought.  What  follows  is  suggestive  as  to  how  Cali- 
fornia has  helped  to  influence  man  in  other  phases  of 
his  art  life. 

California  runs  riot  in  colour.  The  desert  —  Nature's 
experimental  palette  board  —  the  mountains,  the  for- 
ests, the  canyons,  the  foothills,  the  valleys,  the  sea-shore, 
the  islands,  the  sky,  the  atmosphere,  the  sun,  the  night 

393 


394     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

luminaries,  —  what  a  full  orchestra  of  colour  it  is.  No 
gray  melodies,  no  colourless  isingle  instruments,  but 
gtlorious  combinations  of  melody,  harmony,  soul-satis- 
fying chords,  compelling  dissonances,  unique  resolutions, 
played  with  every  instrument  known  to  Nature  —  earth, 
sand,  rock,  weed,  shrub,  plant,  tree,  mountain,  atmos- 
phere and  the  keen  observer  can  scarcely  tell  whether 
sun  or  atmosphere  is  the  more  powerful  in  staining 
everything,  dominating,  diirecting.  What  a  land  of 
light  and  colour  it  is,  flooding,  bathing,  invigorating 
everything  and  everybody.  Well  may  the  bloodless  and 
colourless  of  other  regions  be  attracted  to  it.  They 
come  and  absorb  sunlight  from  our  great  river  of  life 
as  it  flows  through  space  in  every  direction.  They  drink 
it  in;  eyes,  nostrils,  mouth,  pores  of  the  skin  all  receive 
it,  and  thirstily  take  in  its  life-giving  power.  As  nour- 
ishing in  its  way  as  food,  more  necessary  in  some  ways 
than  drink,  more  satisfying  than  wine,  it  is  the  universal 
elixir  and  rejuvenator,  the  benign  restorer  of  health, 
youth,  vigour,  life. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  great  land  for  the  artist,  but  a  land 
that  teaches  him,  flaunts  his  ordinary  puny  training  in 
colour,  seizes  him  by  the  throat,  as  it  were,  or  gently 
leads  him  by  the  hand,  arouses  him,  soothes  him,  irri- 
tates him,  allures  him  with  coJour  melodies,  hannonies, 
concertos,  and  symphonies  he  never  dreamed  of  before. 
Surf,  waves,  billows,  oceans  of  colour;  torrents,  rivers, 
streams,  rivulets,  cataracts,  cascades,  sprinklings,  drops 
of  colour;  colour  near  by,  colour  in  perspective,  colour 
in  mass,  colour  in  dots,  streaks,  flashes,  areas,  vast 
plains;  colours  simple  and  complex,  harmonizing  and 
clashing,  separate  and  combined,  loud  and  soft,  timid 
and  bold,  exuberant  and  quiet ;  colours  of  dignity  and 
colours  of  frivolity,  of  pride  and  humility,  —  but  all  of 


California's  Influence  upon  Art        395 

life,  rich,  full,  abounding,  various  life;  life  free,  abim- 
dant,  glorious. 

This  I  claim  as  one  of  the  marvels  of  California's 
influence,  one  of  its  supreme  gilories,  that  it  has  so  dom- 
inant a  power  over  the  artist.  It  is  a  new  world,  a  new 
environment,  where  new  conditions  simply  demand  new 
expressions,  and  ere  they  know  it,  all  save  the  most  hide- 
bound and  obstinate,  the  most  formal  and  self-centred, 
are  swept  off  their  conventional  feet,  out  of  their  con- 
ventional atmosphere,  beyond  their  conventional  bounds, 
away  from  their  conventional  limitations  into  the  world 
of  spontaneity,  naturalness  and  God-given,  God-guided 
freedom.  The  blood  is  fired  with  new  fire,  the  brain 
with  new  stimulation,  the  imagination  with  new  thrills, 
the  sou'l  with  purer,  truer,  more  natural  inspirations. 

In  this  new  atmosphere  the  artist  is  no  longer  like  Cin- 
derella by  the  fireside,  content  with  the  humdrum  drudg- 
ery of  the  studio.  He  is  thrilled  with  the  passion  of 
being.  He  dares  lift  up  his  eyes  and  dance  with  the 
princess  of  life  herself  in  a  spontaneous  abandon  of 
naturalness  that  is  as  nectar  to  his  thirsty  soul.  His 
sight  expands,  his  vision  enlarges,  his  imagination  soars. 
Bounds  are  removed.  He  sees  and  feels  now  as  never 
before  the  Hmitless  scope  of  his  art.  The  beauty  of  Cali- 
fornia is  the  Divine  vision  that  has  freed  him,  sent  him 
forth  with  the  assurance  that  he  is  called  of  God  in  his 
work  and  shall  soon  prove  his  power,  win  his  spurs, 
demonstrate  his  mastery. 

I  am  well  aware  that  all  this  may  seem  like  a  rhapsody 
to  the  formal-minded,  the  stern  and  self -repressed,  but 
to  me  it  is  the  very  truth  of  God,  and  I  cannot  empha- 
size, as  much  as  I  would  like,  that  I  deem  it  of  the 
highest  significance  that  California  possesses  this  power 
over  the  minds  of  artists,  leading  them  to  a  greater 


396     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

reliance  upon  the  spontaneous,  natural,  even  exuberant 
expressions  of  what  she  presents  to  them.  In  the  world 
of  art,  as  elsewhere,  periods  of  faddism  assert  them- 
selves. During  these  unfortunate  epochs  those  who  rely 
upon  the  schools  for  guidance  dabble  about  within  the 
circumscribed  bounds  and  kill  any  original  power  they 
may  possess.  But  no  such  person  can  come  to  Cali- 
fornia, sketch  from  Nature,  and  not  be  led  speedily  and 
unconsciously  away  from  all  unnatural  and  (artificial 
limitations.  Her  mountains  that  bathe  in  lakes  of 
purest  blue  ether,  companion  the  stars  and  invite  the 
attentions  of  the  cairessing  clouds,  lure  the  true  artist 
to  studies  that  go  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  classroom. 
He  must  watch  the  transient  colours  of  sunrise  and  sun- 
set —  those  peach-blov/^s  and  rose-mists  and  burning 
blazes  of  oranges  and  madders  —  until  they  have  burned 
themselves  into  his  consciousness;  he  must  watch  them 
as  they  paint  the  mountains  of  the  desert,  the  peaks  of 
the  snow-crowned  Sierras,  the  deep  recesses  of  the  can- 
yon gorges,  colour  the  face  of  the  ocean  and  the  sleeping 
islands,  and  then,  unless  he  be  absolutely  hide-bound 
mentally,  afraid  of  his  own  shadow,  not  daring  to  call 
his  soul  his  own,  he  will  "  let  go  "  of  the  binding  dis- 
cipline of  the  past,  and  dare  to  be  his  own  free,  natural, 
exuberant  interpreter  of  God's  beautiful  world.  He  soon 
learns  the  sublime  audacity  of  impassioned  youth,  and, 
if  he  keep  his  inspirations  pure,  gains  them  from  the 
fountain-head  itself,  revels  in  Nature,  abstains  from  the 
demoralizing  and  sense-blunting  narcotics,  stimulants 
and  over- feeding  and  drinking  of  a  sensuous  if  not  de- 
based society,  he  is  bound  to  become  the  true  artist,  — 
he  who  expresses  perfectly,  because  he  expresses  his  love 
for,  his  joy  in,  his  work. 

What  matter  if  for  a  time  he  be  too  exuberant,  too 


California's  Influence  upon  Art         897 

joyous,  too  spontaneous,  too  free?  Time  will  (juiet  him 
down  soon  enough ;  and  in  the  meantime  all  the  world 
loves  a  lover.  It  will  rejoice  in  his  exuberance,  and  the 
sensible  and  sober-minded  even  will  be  glad  for  his  joy- 
ousness.  The  world  of  to-day  is  sad  enough,  solemn 
enough,  formal  enough,  fashionable  enough.  It  needs 
a  little  of  the  opposite;  not  of  cigarette  smoking,  wine- 
and  whiskey-drinking  stimulation,  which  leads  to  bes- 
tiality, but  of  true,  simple,  youthful  naturalness,  the 
same  spirit  that  makes  the  frolicsomeness  of  the  colt, 
the  calf,  the  puppy,  or  the  horse  turned  loose  from  its 
stall.  Such  an  one  mounts  as  on  the  wings  of  eagles, 
runs  and  is  not  weary,  walks  and  is  not  faint. 

Most  men  become  plodders  soon  enough. 

Here  in  California,  however,  I  have  seen  this  magic 
influence  at  work.  I  have  watched  William  Keith,  hair 
■white  as  snow,  eye  dimmed  with  years,  yet  the  fire  of 
youth  in  his  soul,  paint  with  a  fervour  that  seemed  al- 
most feverish,  so  keen  was  his  desire  to  catch  the  visions 
inspired  by  his  beloved  California  trees  and  mountains. 

I  have  watched  Carl  Eytel  on  the  desert,  racked  with 
a  hacking  and  persistent  cough,  tramping  miles  and  miles 
over  the  weary,  hot,  sandy  plains,  and  then  so  eager  to 
transcribe  for  the  world  the  glory  of  colour  revealed 
only  in  these  secret  places  that  he  would  tremble  with 
the  glory  and  passion  that  had  taken  possession  of  him. 

My  friend.  Dean  W.  L.  Judson,  of  the  Fine  Arts  Col- 
lege of  the  University  of  Southern  California,  is  no 
longer  young.  His  hair  is  white,  his  body  frail,  yet  he 
seems  possessed  with  a  spirit  of  youth  and  vigour  that 
cannot  be  suppressed.  I  have  watched  him  as  we  have 
journeyed  down  the  Colorado  River,  when  the  order  was 
given  to  "  Make  Camp."  Before  the  boat  touched  the 
shore  his  easel,  canvas,  paint-box,  brushes,  palette  and 


398     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

stool  were  ready,  and  before  die  boat's  painter  was  made 
fast,  the  artist  painter  was  at  work,  fain  to  catch  the 
colours  of  a  rapidly  dying  day  in  that  rarefied  and  glori- 
fied atmosphere. 

Thomas  Hill  was  thrilled  with  the  Yosemite,  as  is 
Best  to-day,  and  Chris  Jorgensen  flees  to  the  Pligh  Sier- 
ras and  the  Big  Trees,  Cadenasso  to  the  eucalyptus,  Miss 
McCormick  to  the  blue  waters  and  quaint  houses  of  Old 
Monterey,  Wendt  and  Symons  to  the  rugged  shores  of 
Laguna  Beach,  the  hillsides  of  San  Juan  or  the  rocky 
creek-bed  of  the  Sespi.  Brown  worships  in  the  foothills 
and  glorious  summits  of  the  Sierra  Madre,  Bond  Fran- 
cisco to  the  stateliness  of  the  pines  and  the  gorgeous 
glowing  of  the  desert,  and  a  score,  a  hundred,  thrill  with 
the  same  inspiration  gained  from  California's  inexhaust- 
ible treasure  house  of  beauty,  glory,  sublimity  and  maj- 
esty. 

California  generates  naturally  the  same  spirit  that 
has  made  of  the  Italians  a  nation  of  artists  and  art- 
lovers.  It  is  not  an  easy  task  to  convert  the  hard-headed, 
stolid,  reserved  Teuton  into  the  exuberant,  joyous,  spon- 
taneous and  natural.  He  is  too  afraid  of  being  laughed 
at.  But  against  himself  California  wins.  He  yields  as 
did  Turner,  Tintoretto,  and  all  the  great  colourists  of 
the  past.  California  says  so  definitely :  "  Be  not 
afraid !  "  that  his  fears  are  allayed  and  he  steps  out 
boldly,  trusting  the  inspiration  that  has  come  to  his 
own  soul  rather  than  the  academic  teaching  of  some 
dry-as-dust  professor,  who  has  not  climbed  a  mountain 
in  his  lifetime. 

Perhaps  not  all  artists  feel  as  I  have  suggested.  There 
is  much  in  temperament;  and  it  is  not  necessary  that 
all  should  feel  exactly  the  same.  It  is  enough  that  some 
feel   and    respond.      One   Turner   change  1    the   artistic 


California's  Influence  upon  Art        399 

thought  of  the  world,  when  he  found  his  interpreter 
and  expounder  in  Ruskin.  There  has  been  only  one 
Tintoretto,  one  Vandyke,  one  Angelo,  yet  each  have 
influenced  the  whole  world.  America  is  still  in  the 
thralldom  of  fear  of  European  "  authority."  She  does 
not  know  that  it  is  better 

"  Youth 
Should  strive,  through  acts  uncouth, 
Toward  making,  than  repose  on  aught  found  made." 

Far  better  the  gaucheries,  the  crudeness,  the  simplicity, 
of  natural  youth,  struggling  for  the  ideal,  than  the  per- 
fections of  unnatural  work  of  low  aim. 

Hence  in  nothing  does  California  rejoice  me  more 
than  in  that  it  is  compelling  the  world  of  literature  and 
of  art,  the  world  of  men  and  women,  to  a  more  natural 
outlook  upon  life,  more  natural  and  spontaneous  modes 
of  expression,  and,  therefore,  more  nearly  perfect  real- 
izations of  life  and  its  purposes. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII 

California's  domestic  architecture 

God  is  the  great  artist  in  architecture  as  in  everything 
else.  He  makes  no  mistakes  and  His  methods  are  per- 
fect. N^o  one  can  criticize  a  straight  Hne.  a  circle,  a 
sphere,  a  spiral,  an  oval,  all  the  other  "  natural  "  forms. 
They  are  natural,  but  also  divine  and,  therefore,  perfect 
and  above  criticism.  Nature,  however,  does  not  confine 
herself  to  the  simpler  forms.  Complex  forms  are  just 
as  "  natural  "'  as  simple,  if  they  are  real.  But  in  his 
reaching  after  the  beautiful,  the  ideal,  in  seeking  out 
many  inventions,  man  has  wandered  far  from  the  path- 
way of  purity,  of  certainty,  of  naturalness.  To  find  the 
right  path  it  is  well  for  him  to  unlearn,  to  forget,  to 
stick  to  the  fundamentals.  It  may  be  tedious,  but  it  is 
the  only  sure  and  certain  path.  He  must  build  firm, 
solid,  "  deep  upon  the  nether  springs,"  and  then  take 
his  further  steps  cautiously,  knowing  they  are  true  steps, 
firmly  planted  and  upon  solid  foundations.  This  is  the 
secret  of  the  great  appeal  of  the  architecture  of  the  Mis- 
sions —  that  created  by  the  Franciscan  friars  in  Cali- 
fornia. While  Washington  and  his  compeers  were  fra- 
ming a  new  government  for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  the 
Franciscan  friars,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Continent, 
were  framing  a  new  architecture  for  the  world's  instruc- 
tion, rather  than  copying  what  some  one  bad  done  before 
them.  For  they  refused  to  copy.  They  followed  simple, 
primitive,  natural  fonus,  and  created  structures  of  such 

400 


California's  Domestic  Architecture      401 

power,  dignity,  grandeur  and  sublimity  as  to  compel  an 
ever-growing  respect  from  all  the  thinkers  and  beauty- 
lovers  of  the  world. 

These  men  were  not  architects.  They  had  had  neither 
training  nor  experience.  They  were  without  traditions. 
Hence  to  many  their  success  seems  little  less  than  mar- 
vellous. And  certainly  it  would  be  more  than  marvel- 
lous, it  would  be  miraculous,  were  it  not  for  the  sure 
and  certain  working  out  of  the  fundamental  principle 
I  have  laid  down,  viz.,  that  when  one  sticks  to  elemen- 
tals  and  then  builds  slowly,  adhering  closely  the  while 
to  the  Divine  as  revealed  in  Nature,  he  cannot  fail  to 
build  with  power,  dignity,  grandeur  and  sublimity.  Suc- 
cess is  natural,  is  assured  before  one  knows  what  he 
has  accomplished. 

Not  only,  however,  has  California  developed  this  ec- 
clesiastical style  of  architecture.  It  has  done  more. 
Another  style  has  grown  up  spontaneously,  exuberantly, 
naturally  upon  our  soil,  and  is  known  as  the  California 
"  Bungalow." 

This  term  as  originally  used  in  India  was  applied  to 
a  one-story  structure,  covered  with  either  thatch  or  tiles 
and  surrounded  by  a  veranda.  The  California  type 
materially  varies.  It  is  not  confined  to  one  story  though ; 
the  major  proportion  of  the  structures  erected  and  bear- 
ing the  name  are  of  the  so-called  one  story  and  a  half 
height. 

If  one  accepts  a  strict  definition  of  architecture,  such 
as  that  given  by  Vitruvius,  wherein  he  requires  that 
every  true  building  possess  "  stability,  utility  and 
beauty,"  he  would  be  compelled  to  confess  that  many 
so-called  California  bungalows  could  not  be  classed  as 
specimens  of  architecture.  Too  many  architects,  in  their 
striving  after  the   "  original,"   and  possessing  only  the 


402     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

spirit  of  the  copyist  make  buildings  that  are  neither 
stable,  useful  nor  beautiful.  They  feel  there  should  be 
conformity  between  their  buildings  and  the  God-blessed 
country  in  which  they  find  themselves,  yet,  because  they 
know  not  the  fixed  principles  of  the  art  they  vainly  pro- 
fess, they  become  blind  leaders  of  the  blind  and  follow 
or  create  fads,  which  the  ignorant  (even  though  rich) 
public  too  often  accept. 

Some  imagine  that  because  the  climate  of  California 
is  exceedingly  friendly  to  man  that,  therefore,  careful 
construction  in  the  architecture  of  the  home  is  not  neces- 
sary. This  is  entirely  false  reasoning.  Houses  in  warm 
climates  demand  just  as  careful  construction  as  those 
in  cold  climates.  Walls  that  keep  out  cold  are  necessary 
to  keep  out  heat.  Stability  under  all  conditions  that 
may  arise  demands  the  same  anchorage,  or  secure  foun- 
dations, and  proper  "  bonding  "  of  materials  in  warm 
countries  as  in  cold. 

The  true  paths  of  any  art  are  always  the  true,  simple 
and  natural  ones.  John  Ruskin  did  not  write  his  Seven 
Lamps  of  Architecture  in  vain  if  he  merely  taught  the 
thoughtful  of  the  American  people  that  architecture  is 
an  outward  manifestation  of  inner  and  spiritual  life. 
We  build  as  we  are.  If  we  are  poor,  proud  and  pre- 
tentious our  architecture  is  poor,  proud  and  pretentious. 
If  we  are  sham  and  shoddy  our  architecture  is  sham 
and  shoddy.  If  we  "  make  believe,"  our  houses,  stores 
and  office-buildings  also  "  make  believe."  There  is  a 
vast  amount  of  "  zinc  front  "  in  our  civilization,  hence 
it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  pretentious  buildings  with 
massive  "stone"  ornamentations  —  all  of  which  exam- 
ination reveals  to  be  zinc,  sprinkled  with  brown  stone, 
or  painted  to  deceive  the  eye.  As  one  witty  friend  re- 
marked   about    the    architecture    of    a    certain    striking 


California's  Domestic  Architecture      403 

church  building- :  "  It  is  Queen  Anne  in  front,  but  Mary 
Ann  behind." 

The  true  architect  will  sternly  set  his  face  against 
all  structural  sham  or  dishonesty.  Sincerity  will  be  his 
first  wiatchword,  both  in  "  style  "  and  material.  He  is 
as  close  to  God  as  were  the  first  great  architects  —  the 
Greeks,  Romans,  Goths,  Byzantines,  Moguls,  Tartars 
and  others  who  created  what  we  are  pleased  to  term 
"  styles  "  of  architecture.  These  creators  put  into  stable 
and  beautiful  form  the  high  ideals  of  their  age,  or  of 
their  own  souls.  Why  cannot  our  architects  do  the 
same?  Wihy  not  embody  the  spirit  of  our  age,  of  our 
beautiful  country  and  its  friendly  climate?  The  inspi- 
ration is  here  in  tlie  atmosphere,  in  the  "  everv'thing  " 
of  this  highly-favoured  land.  That  there  are  some  sin- 
cere, true,  earnest  souls  reaching  out  for  these  things 
in  architecture  the  observant  visitor  will  discover.  San 
Francisco,  Oakland,  Piedmont,  Berkeley,  Fresno,  Stock- 
ton, Los  Angeles.  Pasadena,  San  Diego — all,  and  many 
other  cities  possess  these  men  and  women ;  for  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  many  women  have  successfully 
entered  the  architectural  field  in  this  State  of  Equal  Op- 
portunities. But  there  is  one  architect  whose  work  I 
wish  especially  to  call  attention  to  because  he  has  dared 
to  endeavour  to  do  fully  what  I  have  tried  to  express. 

This  architect  is  Irving  G.  Gill,  of  Los  Angeles  and 
San  Diego.  Early  impressed  by  the  wonderful  adapt- 
ability of  the  architecture  of  the  Missions  to  the  climate 
and  scenic  environment  of  California  he  sought,  not  as 
so  many  architects  have  done,  to  imitate  or  follow  after 
in  their  work,  but  to  absorb  from  the  original  sources 
of  their  inspiration.  There  is  all  the  difference  in  the 
world  between  more  or  less  slavish  copying,  even  though 
genius  may  aid  one  to  modify  with  pleasing  effect,  and 


404     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

gaining  the  original  inspiration  and  allowing  it  to  work 
out  in  its  own  new  way,  as,  in  the  Missions  it  then 
worked. 

I  would  enjoy  giving  several  pictures  of  Mr.  Gill's 
work,  but  the  limitations  of  space  forbid.  The  interested 
visitor  to  Los  Angeles  will  find  them.  He  may  not  be 
pleased  with  them,  at  first  sight,  but  as  he  studies  and 
his  vision  becomes  clearer,  he  will  find  that  truth,  purity, 
simplicity  and  naturalness  have  been  his  guides.  He 
will  also  discover  that  the  "  colour  "  values  of  this  col- 
ourful land  have  been  utilized  in  a  remarkable  degree. 

Slowly,  but  surely,  architects  are  awakening  to  the 
possibilities  colour  in  verdure,  in  sunrise  and  sunset,  in 
atmospheric  glow,  affords  them,  not  as  a  chance  or  hap- 
hazard, but  as  a  definite  and  reliable  factor.  Califor- 
nians,  some  day,  will  cooperate  with  Nature  in  the  use 
of  colour  as  the  Italians  do.  Comparatively  few  now 
do  it,  but  when  they  do,  who  can  conceive  the  results? 
Here  is  a  Congregational  oburch  at  Riverside  with  a 
square  tower  in  the  style  of  the  Spanish  renaissance. 
The  base  for  forty  feet  up  is  one  square  solid  wall  of 
gray  concrete.  What  a  background  for  trailing  Boston 
vines,  masses  of  poinsettias,  and  banks  of  reddish-yellow 
cannae. 

On  Raymond  Hill,  at  Pasadena,  stands  the  hotel  of 
that  name,  with  a  proprietor  who  has  an  Italian  sense 
of  colour.  The  building  is  a  modem  California  mani- 
festation of  Spanish  renaissance,  with  red  tiled  roofs, 
square  towers  of  brownish  yellow,  and  great  walls,  cut 
up  with  a  thousand  and  one  windows  that  reflect  the 
sun.  It  is  a  joy  to  see  the  bougainvilleas  climb  the 
verandas,  the  masses  of  roses  of  different  shades,  the 
beds  of  alluring  pinks,  the  great  stretches  of  green  lawn, 
the  cunningly  placed  cypresses,  the  deep-toned  oranges 


California's  Domestic  Architecture      405 

with  their  winter  waxen  blossoms,  green  fruit  and  yel- 
lowing globes  beautifying  the  walls  and  angles,  porches 
and  entrances  of  the  simply  coloured  buildings. 

Mr.  Gill  is  so  fully  imbued  with  this  idea  that  he 
demands  the  privilege,  as  part  of  his  work  as  an  archi- 
tect, of  laying  out  the  garden  that  is  to  surround  it. 
Here  in  California  we  have  gardens  all  the  year  around, 
hence  flowers,  shrubs  and  trees  are  a  stable  factor  in 
the  beautifying  of  a  home.  The  house  colour  or  tint 
should  set  off  the  colour  scheme  of  the  garden,  so  that 
every  view  coming  towards  the  house  is  pleasing  both 
to  its  permanent  and  temporary  resident. 

In  house  interiors,  also,  colour  must  be  taken  into 
consideration,  not  alone  in  the  loud  and  vivid  "  colour 
schemes  "  so  often  used,  or  even  in  the  more  modest 
and  gentler  "  tones,"  but  in  those  subtler  influences  that 
one  at  first  scarce  perceives,  but  which,  when  his  senses 
are  attuned  to  them  give  the  perceptive  mind  the  keenest 
delight. 

Who  has  not  noticed  how  a  room  has  taken  on  a 
new  and  pleasing  tone  by  the  introduction,  say,  of  a 
burnished  copper  bowl,  or  a  piece  of  blue  china?  Who 
has  not  seen  a  dining  table  illuminated  with  a  basket  of 
roses,  a  greater  or  lesser  mass  of  violets  or  jonquils? 
Banks  of  golden  cosmos  will  give  a  new  glory  to  the 
yellow  candle-shades  and  add  a  richness  to  the  hue  of 
any  room,  while  the  glare  of  an  electric  light  is  trans- 
formed into  a  poem  of  colour  by  surrounding  it  with 
a  sea  shell  in  which  lurks  the  tint  of  the  abalone  or  the 
pearl. 

When  the  building  of  homes  is  conducted  in  accord- 
ance with  the  fundamental  spirit  I  have  sought  to  out- 
line true  architecture  is  bound  to  be  the  result,  and  this 
distinction  I  claim  for  the  work  of  Mr.  Gill. 


CHAPTER    XXIX 

THE    JOURNEY    TO    CALIFORNIA 

There  are  six  routes  to  California  from  the  East, 
North  and  South.  These  are  respectively  known  as  the 
"  Central  Route  "  of  the  Union  and  Southern  Pacific 
from  Omaha  to  San  Francisco;  the  "Sunset  Route" 
of  the  Soutliern  Pacific  from  New  Orleans  to  Los  An- 
geles and  San  Francisco;  the  "  Portland  Route  "  of  the 
Southern  Pacific  from  Portland  to  San  Francisco  and 
Los  Angeles ;  the  "  Santa  Fe  Route  "  of  the  Atchison, 
Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe  from  Chicago  to  Los  Angeles  and 
San  Francisco;  the  "  Salt  Lake  Route  ''  of  the  San 
Pedro,  Los  Angeles  and  Salt  Lake  from  Salt  Lake  to 
Los  Angeles;  the  "  Feather  River  Route  "  of  the  West- 
em  Pacific  from  Chicago  to  San  Francisco. 

Hence  the  visitor  has  his  choice  of  routes.  The  vari- 
ous connections  of  these  difi^erent  lines  also  afford  many 
combinations,  so  that  one  may  travel  across  the  conti- 
nent a  dozen  or  more  times,  and  each  time  find  some 
new  and  fascinating  portion  of  our  incomparable  coun- 
try for  sight-seeing  and  study. 

It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  in  America  any  thou- 
sand miles  of  railway  can  be  found  that  contains  as  much 
of  scenic,  ethnologic,  antiquarian,  geologic  and  historic 
interest  as  does  the  stretch  of  the  Santa  Fe  line  from 
a  hundred  miles  east  of  Albuquerque,  N.  M.,  to  the  Pa- 
cific Coast. 

406 


The  Journey  to  California  407 


This  is  practically  the  old  Santa  Fe  trail,  and  over  it 
journeyed  the  great,  heavy,  lumbering-  wagons  —  the 
prairie  schooners  of  the  '40's  and  '50's — of  the  last 
century,  crossing  the  plains  from  Independence,  Mo.,  to 
Santa  Fe,  and  later,  across  New  Mexico  and  Arizona 
to  California.  Later  it  was  the  route  of  thousands  of 
gold  seekers,  many  of  whom  came  to  California  with  ox 
teams.  One  could  well  write  a  book  over  this  trail  and 
not  exhaust  its  romance.  But  centuries  before  either 
traders  or  gold  seekers  crossed  over  it  from  East  to 
West,  the  old  Spanish  conquistadores  had  learned  much 
about  what  it  had  to  offer.  On  horseback,  with  mules, 
burros  or  afoot,  they  came  up  from  Sonora  —  first 
Marcos  de  Nizza  on  his  trip  of  reconnaissance,  then  Cor- 
onado  with  his  brave  band  of  gold  hunters,  and  zealous 
Franciscan  priests. 
I  Read  Marah  Ellis  Ryan's  Flute  of  the  Gods,  and  study 
the  history  of  the  Missions  of  New  Mexico,  and  feel 
your  heart  thrill  at  the  conflict  between  the  religions  of 
the  two  civilizations.  Sure  they  were  right,  the  brown- 
gowned  Friars  Minor  demanded  acceptance  of  the  relig- 
ion they  offered.  Equally  true  they  were  right,  the  sha- 
mans of  the  pueblo  Indians  invoked  their  time-honoured 
gods  of  sun  and  sky,  rain  and  storm,  earth  and  heaven, 
—  that  wonderful  pantheon  of  gods  that  most  American 
writers  know  so  little  of,  —  and  braved  the  white  man's 
death  and  hell  rather  than  consent  to  their  bronze  broth- 
ers and  sisters  receiving  the  new  religion. 

Then  read  of  the  dread  day  of  Santana,  Aug.  10, 
1680,  when  all  the  Indians  of  the  pueblos,  from  Taos 
on  the  north  to  Zuni  on  the  south  and  Oraibi  on  the 
west,  arose  as  one  man  and  smote  hip  and  thigh  every 
Spaniard  they  could  reach.  It  reads  like  a  chapter  of 
the  Old  Testament,  where  the  orders  were  that  not  a 


408     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

soul  —  man,  woman  or  child  —  should  be  spared.  The 
hated  priests  were  burned  alive,  cast  off  cliffs,  beheaded, 
brained  with  war-clubs,  scalped,  and  every  one  of  the 
detested  new  race  was  made  to  feel  the  deep  and  unal- 
terable antagonism  of  the  red  to  the  white. 

Equally  as  wonderful  as  its  history  is  the  scenery  of 
the  land.  The  Painted  Desert  is  there,  and  the  Petrified 
Forest  with  its  quaintly  carved  hieroglyphics  on  the 
near-by  rocks;  the  Cliff  and  Caveate  Dwellings;  the 
Meteorite  Mountain;  Sunset  Crater;  the  Navaho 
Church ;  the  Enchanted  Mesa ;  the  sand  and  wind- 
carved  Mesas;  the  Mogollon  Buttes;  the  Red-RDck 
Country ;  the  Verdi,  Tonto  and  Oak-Creek  basins ;  the 
gigantic  Agua  Fria  and  San  Mateo  Craters;  the  miles 
and  miles  of  lava  flows  ;  the  ice-caves ;  the  sacred  moun- 
tains of  the  Navahos,  —  Pelade,  San  Mateo,  San  Fran- 
cisco, —  and  in  addition  there  is  that  most  superlative 
of  the  world's  scenic  glories  —  the  Grand  Canyon. 
Time  was  when  we  had  to  reach  it  by  means  of  stage, 
wagon  or  horseback.  Now  a  branch  line  of  the  Santa 
Fe,  starting  from  Williams,  strikes  almost  straight  north 
across  the  Painted  Desert  and  reaches  the  Canyon  at 
its  very  rim,  where  a  commodious,  picturesque  and  alto- 
gether appropriate  hotel,  "  El  Tovar,"  receives  the  guest 
and  makes  him  feel  at  home.  My  old  friend  Brandt 
has  been  its  host  ever  since  it  was  built,  and  his  genial 
and  charming  wife  makes  a  worthy  better-half  in  watch- 
ing out  for  the  comfort  of  the  visitor.  The  porch  of 
the  hotel  directly  overlooks  the  Canyon.  Across  the 
abyss,  to  the  right,  is  the  black  line,  zigzagged  and  rough, 
of  the  Bright  Angel  Creek,  which  gives  its  name  to 
the  *'  Fault "  on  this  side,  in  the  shattered  strata  of 
which  the  Indians,  centuries  ago,  following  the  rude 
first  trails   of  the  mountain  sheep,   antelope,   deer   and 


The  Journey  to  California  409 

other  wild  animals,  made  the  first  human  footprints  and 
outlined  the  trail  down  which  well-trained  mules  and 
horses  now  convey  thousands  and  thousands,  and  still 
more  thousands,  of  delighted,  enchanted,  awe-inspired 
men  and  w'omen. 

What  a  glory  the  Canyon  is.  Imagine  a  range  of 
mountains,  the  two  opposite  sides  treated  as  if  they  were 
two  slates  hinged  at  their  tops,  the  bases  opened  up 
and  the  summits  thrust  deep  into  earth's  bosom.  But 
the  "  slates  "  are  miles  and  miles  thick,  and  the  "  moun- 
tains "  a  mile  or  more  high,  so  that  as  we  stand  on 
those  reversed  bases  that  are  now  respectively  the  north 
and  south  "  rims  "  of  the  Canyon,  and  look  down,  we 
see  ravines,  gorges,  canyons,  precipices,  bluffs,  towers, 
pinnacles,  buttes,  solitary  mountains  and  peaks,  temples, 
colonnades,  arches,  domes,  —  every  conceivable  feature 
of  rock  and  structure  —  a  mile-deep  abyss  full  of  them, 
but  all  on  such  a  gigantic  scale  as  to  appear  like  the 
vast,  hideous,  stupendously  overwhelming  objects  of  a 
nightmare  made  real,  transfused  with  radiant  splendour, 
dashed  over  with  all  the  colours  of  the  sunrise,  sunset, 
and  rainbow  in  combinations  never  revealed  to  man 
before,  and  transfigured  with  a  glory  as  if  from  the 
very  throne  of  God. 

Not  an  "  inferno,"  as  one  graphic  writer  called  it, 
even  though  "  savathed  in  celestial  fires,"  for  when  the 
eye  of  the  mind  becomes  more  accustomed  to  the  tre- 
mendous sight  it  grows  to  be  a  newer,  better,  larger 
city  of  the  blest,  smiled  upon  by  the  Divine,  a  place  for 
angels,  not  demons,  for  transformed  men,  for  such  men 
as  the  ages  will  yet  lure  from  the  protoplast  when  the 
time  is  ripe  for  their  coming. 

Several  trails  now  lead  into  these  depths,  each  one 
more  wonderful  than  the  other,   reminding  one  of  the 


410     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

Irishman's  definition  of  American  democracy,  where 
"  every  man  is  as  good  as  every  other  man,  and  better." 
For  each  trail  has  its  own  individuaHty,  and  it  is  so 
overwhelming,  so  stupendous,  so  mentally  overpowering 
and  dominating  that  while  you  are  in  its  presence  you 
can  scarcely  think  of  other  trails  or  scenes  with  which 
to  compare  it. 

Do  not  think  that  you  can  "  see  "  this  Canyon,  "  do 
it,"  in  a  day  or  two,  or  even  in  a  week.  You  must  ride 
on  its  rim,  camp  with  its  glories  on  points  many  and 
various,  go  down  all  its  trails,  roam  over  its  interior 
plateaus,  gaze  up  and  down  its  manifold  precipices, 
stand  at  the  base  of  its  towering  castellated  structures, 
gaze  upon  its  wide-sweeping  colonnades  from  below  as 
well  as  above,  cross  its  raging  river  and  climb  up  to 
the  looo-feet  higher  rim  of  the  north  side,  and  travel 
a  hundred  or  two  miles  east  and  west  there,  ere  you 
shall  dare  to  begin  to  say  you  "  know  "  the  Grand  Can- 
yon. Be  humble,  be  wise  to  learn,  be  receptive  in  the 
presence  of  this  vastness.  Sit  in  meekness  and  reverence, 
silent  and  still,  and  let  the  Voice  of  the  Wide  Expanse 
be  heard  in  its  ponderous  noiselessness.  From  its  low- 
est depths  you  shall  hear  the  rumble  of  its  roaring,  dash- 
ing, mighty  river,  softened  by  the  distance  into  a  mere 
echo  of  a  beaten  drum. 

It  was  in  the  heart  of  the  various  canyons  of  the 
Colorado  River  that  Major  J.  W.  Powell,  brave,  indom- 
itable, indefatigable,  the  one-armed  hero  of  Gettysburg 
—  for  he  was  a  soldier  in  the  Civil  War  and  lost  his 
right  arm  at  Gettysburg,  —  spent  three  months  with  his 
men  wresting  from  the  black  gorge  and  roaring  river 
the  secrets  of  their  existence.  He  had  been  warned  that 
it  was  a  most  dangerous  trip.  Miners,  cowboys  and 
Indians  alike  declared  that  the  river  ran  under  the  moim- 


The  Journey  to  California  411 

tains  with  irresistible  force ;  there  were  whirlpools, 
fierce  rapids  crowded  with  jagged  boulders  which  tore 
the  water  into  spume  and  foam,  and  through  which  not 
even  a  magic  or  fairy  boat  could  pass  in  safety.  They 
pictured  tremendous  waterfalls  like  Niagara,  over  which 
his  boats  would  pitch,  carried  over  by  the  on-sweeping 
current,  and  the  Indians  protested  that  in  many  places 
the  "  water-pony  "  —  as  they  called  the  boat  —  would 
"  heap  buck  "  and  throw  its  occupants  into  the  wave. 

But  there  are  heroes  of  peace  as  well  as  heroes  of 
w'ar,  and  Major  Powell  was  a  hero  in  either  sphere.  He 
went  on  w'ith  his  preparations  and  on  the  24th  of  May, 
1869,  left  Green  River  City,  in  Wyoming,  with  four 
boats  and  nine  men  for  the  memorable  expedition  that 
was  to  make  his  name  for  ever  famous. 

That  expedition  failed,  however,  to  reveal  all  that 
he  was  determined  to  know.  So  a  second  one  was 
planned  which  completed  the  work. 

Afterwards  Powell  was  appointed  the  chief  or  director 
of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  and  sent  men  of  science 
to  study  into  the  formation  of  the  Canyon,  who  brought 
back  knowledge  that  has  materially  added  to  our  con- 
ception of  the  earth's  upbuilding. 

Since  Powell  several  parties  have  successfully  nego- 
tiated the  dangerous  trip  and  at  El  Tovar  there  now 
stands  a  battered,  dented,  apparently  old  boat,  whose 
metal  sides  are  scratched,  rubbed,  and  scarred  with  many 
a  conflict  with  the  rocks,  the  story  of  w^hich  is  written 
over  it,  recounting  that  certain  modest  adventurers  made 
the  trip  through  the  Canyons  of  the  Colorado  in  it,  with 
various  exciting  and  thrilling  adventures.  The  photog- 
raphers of  the  Canyon,  too,  the  Kolb  brothers,  whose 
studio  is  at  the  head  of  the  Bright  Angel  trail,  will  tell 
you  of  their  successful  trip,  and  their  moving  pictures 


412     California,  Romantic  and  Beautiful 

of  their  experiences  demonstrate  that,  httle  by  Httle, 
even  the  most  secret  recesses  of  Nature  are  yielding 
their  secrets  to  the  indomitable  will,  perseverance  and 
unconquerable  energy  of  mankind. 


THE  END. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


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INDEX 


Titles  of  Chapters  are  printed  in  small  capitals. 
Titles  of  Books  or  Poems  are  printed  in  italics. 


Abado  sung,  39. 

Acapulco,  vii. 

Advertising  California,  xv. 

Agassiz  Peak,  118. 

Agricultural  Development,  ix,  xi. 

Aitken,  R.,  181. 

Alameda,  184,  185. 

Alamitos,  3,  272. 

Alamo  River,  302,  306,  307. 

Albion,  New,  vii,  x. 

Alcatraz  Island,  141,  172,  174. 

Alfalfa,  Introduction  of,  xiii. 

Alpine  Tavern,  273. 

Alpine  Valley,  325. 

Al  Tahoe,  245. 

Alps  of  the  King-Kern  Divide,   76 

(q-),  77- 
Alvarado,  Governor,  189. 
American  River,  103. 
Among  the  Redwoods,  383. 
Anacapa  Islands,  146,  155. 
Anaheim,  248. 
Anderson  Valley,  316. 
Angel  Island,  174. 
Anita,  Little  Santa,  Canyon,  in. 
Antelopes,  206. 

Antelope  Valley,  14,  252,  296,  312. 
Anza,  Juan  B.  de,  ix,  62,  297. 
Arbuckle,  11. 

Architecture,  Domestic,  400  et  seq. 
Arctic  Daisies,  335. 
Arguello,  Concepcion,  122. 
Arizona,  Grand  Canyon  of,  408  et 

seq. 
Artesian  Wells,  312. 
Ar3'an  Temple,  275  et  seq. 
Aryan  Theosophical  Press,  292. 
Asti  Vineyards,  321. 
Atascadero,  5. 


Atherton,  Gertrude,  ix,  66,  76,  390. 
Aurora  (vessel),  126. 
Austin,  Mary,  66,  385. 

AUTOMOBILING  IN  CALIFORNIA,   200, 
246, 359-372. 

Avalon,  147,  149. 

Aviation,  U.  S.  School  of,  291. 


B 


Babcock,  E.  S.,  279. 
Baer,  John  W.,  354. 
Balboa,  3,  272. 
Balboa  Park,  286. 
Balboa's  Sea,  41. 
Baldtir,  The  Sons  of,  322. 
Baldwin,  E.  J.,  244. 
Bancroft,  H.  H.  (q.),  55. 
Bancroft  Library,  351. 
Banning  Company,  147. 
Barbara  Worth,  Winning  of,  310. 
Barleycorn,  John,  140. 
Barnard,   355. 
Barrett  Dam,  283. 
Bartlett,  W.  C,  381. 
Bashford,  Herbert  (q.),  21,  120. 
Bayard  Taylor.    {See  Taylor.) 
Cays.     {See  also  Harboiurs.) 

Avalon,  147,  149. 

Bodega,  127,  143. 

Drake's,  43. 

Half  Moon,  41,  121. 

Humboldt,  15,  143. 

Monterey,  ix,  8,  15, 40, 41,  50, 143. 

San  Diego,  28,  143. 

San  Francisco,  8,  13,  15,  42,  43, 
44,  138,  140,  143,  172. 

San  Luis  Obispo,  143. 

San  Pablo,  140. 

Santa  Barbara,  143. 

Tomales,  142. 


417 


418 


Index 


Beach  Boulevard,  179. 

Beale.  Lieutenant,  301. 

Bean  fields,  3. 

Bear  Creek,  118. 

Bear  Flag  Revolution,  ix,  191. 

Beautification  Committees,  347. 

Beauty  of  California,  x,  20. 

Beechey,  Captain,  127. 

Begg's  Rock,  146-156. 

Beginnings  of  San  Francisco,  181. 

Bells  of  San  Gabriel  (q.),  57- 

Below  the  Tehachipi,  248. 

Belvidere,  186. 

Benicia,  122. 

Ben  Lomond,  90. 

Benton,  A.  B.,  256. 

Berkeley,  9,  62,  171,  1S4,  185,  349 

ei  seq.,  375. 
Bernal  Heights,  172. 
Bernice,  303. 
Best,  H.  C,  398. 
Bidarkas,  33. 
Bid  well,  John,  195. 
Bidwell,  Mrs.  A.  E.  K.,  332. 
Bierce,  Ambrose,  ix,  66. 
Big  Trees,  115.    (5ee  a/50  Sequoias.) 
Big  Valley,  317. 
Bijou,   246. 
Bishop  Creek,  100. 
Bishop's  Peaks,  5. 
Bishop's  Rock,  154. 
Black  Butte,  318. 
Blaisdell,  James,  354. 
Blavatsky,  H.  P.,  291. 
Bleeding  Heart,  336. 
Bloody  Canyon,  335. 
Blossom  Festival  (Saratoga),  7. 
Blossom  Time,  In,  7. 
Blythe,  314. 
Boats.  Indian,  33. 
Bodega  Bay,  127,  143. 
Bohemia,  Triumph  of,  322. 
Bohemian  Grove,  321. 
Bohemian  Jinks,  321. 
Bolinas,  121. 
Bolsas,  33. 

Boom,  Southern  California,  267. 
Bouchard,  121. 
Brannan,  Sam,  139. 
Brawley,  303. 
Brenner,  John  C,  353. 
Brockways,  245. 
Brooklyn  (vessel),  137. 
Brown,  Benjamin  C.,  398. 
Buena  Vista  Hill,  172. 


Bungalow,  California,  401. 
Burbank,  Luther,  xiv,  320,  334. 
Burgess,  Gelett  (q.),  182,  382. 
Burnham,  355. 
Burnham,  Captain,  159. 
Burnham,  D.  H.,  175. 
Burning  Daylight,  184,  320. 
Butte  Valley,  316. 


Cable  Incline,  273. 

Cabrillo,  vii,   28,  39,  43,  65,   120, 

121,  129,  130,  147. 
Cabrillo  Canyon,  286. 
Cadenasso,  398. 
Cahuenga,  Treaty  of,  ix. 
Calaveras  River,  212. 
Calexico,  303. 
California: 

Abandoned,  nearly,  45,  46. 

Advertised,   not    sj'stematically, 

XV. 

Architecture,  Domestic,  4cx)- 

405- 
Beauty  of,  20,  27. 
Big  Trees  of,  77,  115. 
Boosters,  xviii. 
Called  New  Albion,  vii. 
Cattle  in,  xii. 
Channel   Islands.     {See  Channel 

Islands). 
Christmas  in  (q.),  167. 
Citrus  fruits,  189. 
Climate,  163-170. 
Climatic  Cosmos,  A,  x,  163,  170. 
Coast,  13,  120-144. 
College  of,  349. 
Colour  in,  393. 
Coolbrith,  Ina,  on  (q.),  66. 
Cotton  grown  in,  xiii. 
Dates  grown  in,  xiii. 
Development  Company,  307. 
Diversified,  x. 
Domestic    Architecture,    400- 

Electricity  in,  94. 

Festivals,  7.    {See  Festivals.) 

Fishing,  142. 

Fogs,  91. 

Future  of,  18. 

Glimpses  of,  i. 

Grove  (Sequoias),  216. 

Gulf  of,  vii. 

How  to  know,  xvii. 


Index 


419 


California: 

Hydro-Electric  Development,  94- 

lOI. 

Influence  xjpon  Art,  393-399- 

Irrigation  in,  xiii. 

journtey  to,  406-412. 

Land  of  Prophecy,  64-75. 

Lighthouses,  134. 

Literature,  380. 

Military  Invasion  of,  xii. 

Newness  of,  xvi,  18. 

Newspaper,  First,  in,  139. 

New  Year's  Day  in,  164. 

Origin  of  the  name,  vi. 

Peninsula  of,  38. 

Population,  Cosmopolitan,  xiv. 

Rainfall,  71,  164. 

Rapid  Growth  of,  18. 

Redwood  Park,  90. 

Romance  and  Beauty,  20-27. 

Routes  to,  406-412. 

Russians  in,  127. 

Size  of,  xvi,  xix. 

Southern,  14,  248-260. 

Stimulator  of  Literature,  380. 

Trees,  329 

Unexplored,  28. 

Universities,     Colleges     and 
Observatories,  349-358. 

Water  in,  92,  93. 

Wheat  in,  xiii. 

World  in  itself,  19. 
California,   Southern,    14,    248- 
260. 

Boom,  in,  267. 

Climate  of,  251. 

Movies  made  in,  271. 

Van  Dyke  on,  91,  345. 
Californias,  Las,  vii. 
Californians,  The  first,  29. 
Calimyrna  Fig,  312. 
Calistoga,  3x9,  368. 
Camino  Real,  348. 
Campbell,  W.  W.,  355. 
Candle  Cactus,  342. 
Candlestick  of  our  Lord,  340. 
Canyon,  Kaweah,  117. 

Kern,  116,  117. 

Soda  Creek,  116. 
Cape  Mendocino,  vii,  28,  131. 
Cape  San  Sebastian,  132. 
Capital,  State,   190.       {See  Sacra- 
mento.) 
Cardiff-by-the-Sea,  287. 
Carmel-by-the-Sea,  121,  143. 


Carmelo,  Rio,  131,  132. 
Carnegie  Observatory,  273,  274,356. 
Carnival  of  Flowers,  xi.    {See  Festi- 
vals.) 
Carpenteria,  4. 
Carpenteria  Valley,  315. 
Carquinez  Straits,  9,  140. 
Carrington  Point,  161. 
Carson,  Kit,  300. 
Carson,  Luella  C,  355. 
Castella,  201. 
Castle  Crags,  12,  201. 
Castle  Crags  Resort,  201. 
Castle  Dome,  201. 
Castro  and  Fremont,  5,  83. 
Catalina  Island.     {See  Santa  Cata- 

lina.) 
Cathedral  Park,  245. 
Cathedral  Spires,  201. 
Cat's  Claw  Cactus,  341. 
Cattle  Days  in  Cahfornia,  xii. 
Ceanothus,  337. 

Cemetery  of  San  Francisco,  181. 
Central  Pacific  Railroad,  ix. 
Century,  The  (q.),  126. 
Cereus,  Giganteus,  329,  342. 
Cermenon,  Sebastian  R.  de,  vii. 
Chaffey,  George  C,  304. 
Chagoopa  Plateau,  116. 
Channel  Islands,  13,  60,  145-162. 

Anacapa,  146. 

Begg's  Rock,  146. 

Caves  on,  159. 

Climatic  Conditions,  145. 

Coronados,  28,  146,  153. 

Isles  of  Summer,  145. 

San  Clemente,  4,  131,  146,  154. 

San  Miguel,  130,  146,  161. 

San  Nicolas,  146. 

Santa  Barbara  Rock,  146. 

Santa  Catalina,  4,  131,  146. 

Santa  Rosa,  146,  161. 

Santa  Cruz,  146,  159. 

Sea  Lions,  159. 

Shoal  of  Cortez,  146,  153,  154. 

Tanner's  Bank,  146,  153,  154. 
Chase,  J.  Smeaton,  329. 
Chico,  II,  192,  195,354. 
Chico  Normal  School,  354. 
Chico  Rancho,  332. 
Chimehuevas,  301. 
Chinamen,  146. 
Chinatown,  S.  F.,  177. 
Chinese  Exclusion,  181. 
Christmas  in  California  (q.),  383. 


420 


Index 


Chrysopylae,  171. 

Chuckawalla  Mountains,  81 

Chucka walla  Valley,  314. 

Chula  Vista,  287. 

Church,  Dr.  J.  E.,  Jr.,  103. 

Citrus  Fruits,  189. 

Civil  War,  ix. 

Clare,  Lake,  Little,  116. 

Clark,  Eli  P.,  263. 

CHff  House,  8,  178,  182. 

Cliff ton-by-the-Sea,  3,  272. 

Cloud's  Rest,  118. 

Cloverdale,  321. 

Coachella  Valley,   i,   14,   101,   2g6, 

311- 
Coaching  on  Catalina,  151. 
Coast  Expedition,  137. 
Coast  Names,  129,  130,  131. 
Coast  Range,  11,  14,  15,  216. 
Cocopahs,  301. 
Cold  Spell,  252. 
Colegrove,  267. 
College  of  California,  349. 
Coloma,  191. 
Colorado  Desert,  13,  14,  81,  91,  loi, 

249. 
Colorado  River,    i,  28,  32,   297   et 

seq. 
Colorado  River  Missions,  55. 
Columbus,  21. 
Colusa,  II. 

Comstock  Mines  discovered,  ix. 
Conaty,  Bishop  T.  J.,  265. 
Concepcion,  Point,   131,    134,  161, 

248. 
Coolbrith,  Ina  (q.),  7,  66,  75,  338, 

340- 
Cora  and  Casey  hanged,  181. 
Corning,  11. 
Corona,   252. 

Coronado,  121,  142,  143,  275  et  seq. 
Coronados  Islands,  28,  146. 
Cortes,  vii. 
Cortes,  Shoal  of,  146. 
Cosumnes  River,  212. 
Cotter,  84. 

Cotton  introduced,  xiii. 
Cotton  Mills,  185. 
Count  of  Monterey,  41,  131. 
Counties: 

Alpine,  14. 

Amador,  195. 

Butte,  362. 

Calaveras,  14,  212. 

Contra  Costa,  164,  174,  184,  334. 


Counties: 

Del  Norte,  315. 

El  Dorado,  195. 

Humboldt,  13,  315. 

Imperial,  248. 

Inyo,  318. 

Kern,  165,  214,  318. 

Kings,   214. 

Lake,  319. 

Lassen,  317. 

Los  Angeles,  248,  365. 

Madera,  214,  319. 

Marin,  174,  184,  323,  334. 

Mariposa,  319. 

Mendocino,  13,  316. 

Merced,  214. 

Modoc,  16,  108,  317. 

Napa,  184,  319,  334. 

Ne\'ada,  14,  195. 

Orange,  248. 

Placer,  195,  318. 

Plumas,  195,  318. 

Riverside,  248. 

Sacramento,  334,  365. 

San  Bernardino,  165,  248. 

San  Diego,  248,  324,  366. 

San  Joaquin,  212,  334,  366. 

Santa  Barbara,  248,  315. 

Santa  Clara,  174. 

Shasta,  12,  165,  195,  317. 

Sierra,  195. 

Siskiyou,  316. 

Sonoma,  127,  164,  184,  319,  334. 

Stanislaus,  213. 

Sutter,  II. 

Tehama,  12. 

Trinity,  317. 

Tulare,  214. 

Yuba,  II. 
County  Highway  Commission,  366. 
Covarrubias,  Nicholas,  Sr.,  147. 
Covina,  248. 
Cowboy  Country,  249. 
Cowboy,  Day  of,  ix. 
Cox,  Palmer,  382. 
Coyote  Wells,  303. 
Coyote  Valley,  316. 
Crawfish,  149. 
Creation  Myths  of  P.  A.  (q.),  34,  35, 

36. 
Creek,  Freeman,  115. 
Crescent  City,  121. 
Crespi,  Juan  de,  8,  40,  44,  46. 
Crocker,  Charles,  263. 
Cucamonga  Desert,  296. 


Index 


421 


Cucamonga  Peaks,  82. 
Cummings-Gordon,   Miss   (q.),    26, 

lOI. 

Curtin,  J.  (q.),  on  Indians,  34,  35, 

36. 
Cuyamaca  Mountains,  79,  80,  81, 

91. 
C3^resses,  Monterey,  329. 


D 


Dalea  Spinosa,  343. 

Dana  in  California,  xii,  120,  132. 

Darlingtonia,  344. 

Date  City,  303. 

Date  Experimental  Farms,  312. 

Dates  Introduced,  xiii,  312. 

Davis,  10. 

Dead  Man's  Island,   133. 

Death  Valley,  13,  15. 

Deer  Park  Springs,  118,  245. 

Delano,  L.  P.,  245. 

Del  Mar,  287. 

Del  Norte  Valley,  315. 

Delmas,  D.  M.,  352. 

Delta  of  San  Joaquin,  212. 

Desert: 

Colorado,  13,  32, 91,  loi,  249,  252, 
296  et  seq. 

Lure  of  the,  294. 

Mohave,  13,  14,  32,  249,  252,  296. 

Reclamation  of,  x. 

Transformation  of,  309. 
Deserts,  California,  and  Teeir 
Reclamation,  294-314. 

As  Climate  Breeders,  91. 
Desolation  Valley,  77,  103,  243 
Diablo,  Mt.,  15,  83,  174,  184. 
Diablo  Point,  158. 
Diamond  Hitch,  109. 
Diaz,  Melchior,  32. 
Dickerson,  Mahlon,  138. 
Dick's  Peak,  118. 
Discovery  of  Gold,  ix,  xii,  10,  172. 
Discovery  of  Oil,  x 
Distilleries,  211. 
Divide,  Great  Western,  116. 
Dixieland,  303. 
Donner  Lake,  13. 
Donner  Party,  ix,  191. 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  vii,  x,  43,  120, 

121,  148. 
Drake's  Bay,  43. 
Dredgers,  Gold,  192. 
Drum  Power-house,  98. 


Duarte,  248. 

Du  Bois,  Constance  G.,  390. 
Dunn,  Allan  (q.),  9,  177. 
Dunsmuir,  12,  201. 
Dutch  P"Iat,  191. 

E 

Eagleville,  108. 

Earthquake  of  1906,  x. 

Echo  Mountain,  263,  355. 

Eel  River  Valley,  315. 

Ehmann  Olive  Company,  318. 

El  Cajon  Valley,  324. 

El  Camino  Real  (q.),  390.    (See  also 

Camino  Real.) 
El  Centro,  303. 
Eldredge,  Zoeth,  181. 
Electricity  from  High  Sierras,  9,  94. 

In  Los  Angeles,  99. 

In  San  Francisco,  94. 
Elizabeth  Lake  Tunnel,  93. 
Ellerman,  F.,  356. 
Ellis  Peak,  118. 
Emerald  Bay  Camp,  245. 
English  Explorers  in  California,  ix. 
Escondido  Valley,  324. 
Eureka,  121. 
Evans,  Admiral  R.  D.,  5. 
Everett,  Edward  (vessel),  126. 
Eytel,  Carl,  397. 


Fadden,  Chimmie,  382. 

Fair,  James  G.,  182. 

Fairmont  Hotel,  8,  182. 

Fallen  Leaf  Lake,  103,   245. 

Fallen  Leaf  Lodge,  245. 

Fall  River  Valley,  318. 

Fan  Palm,  329. 

Farwell,  W.  B.  (q.),  126. 

Feather  River,  11,  194,  195. 

Felton,  331. 

Ferry-boat,  Solano,  9. 

Festival   Spirit   in    California, 

373-379- 
Festivals,  California: 
Berkeley,  Aquatic,  377. 
Bishop,  Harvest,  377 
Blythe,  Cotton,  376. 
Carmel-by-the-Sea,  377. 
Chico,  Hop,  377 
Cloverdale,  Citrus,  377 
Coachella  Valley,  Harvest,  377. 


422 


Index 


Festivals,  California: 
Concord,  Walnut,  377. 
Crescent  City,  Water,  377. 
El  Centre,  Cotton,  376. 
Elmhurst,  Autumn,  377. 
Escondido,  Grape,  325,  377. 
Fresno,  Grape,  376. 
Fresno,  Raisin  Day,  376. 
Hayward,  Cherry,  376. 
Healdsburg,  Harvest,  377. 
Holtville,  Melon,  377. 
Lodi,  Grape,  376. 
Long  Beach,  Water,  375. 
Los  Banos,  May  day,  377. 
Mecca,  Date,  377. 
Monte  Rio,  Water,  377. 
Monterey,  Junipero  Serra,  373. 
Mt.  Tamalpais,  Forest  Play,  377. 
Oakland,  Columbus,  377. 
Oroville,  Water,  377. 
Oxnard,  Beet,  377. 
Pacific  Grove,  Lantern,  377. 
Pasadena,  Tournament  of  Roses, 

374,  377- 
Petaluma,  Poultry,  377. 
Placerville,  Pear,  376. 
Redondo,  Easter  Carnation,  376. 
Redondo,  Water,  375. 
Russian  River,  Aquatic,  377. 
San  Bernardino,  National  Orange, 

376.. 
San  Diego,  Cabrillo,  373. 
San   Diego,   Straw   Hat   Parade, 

377- 

San  Francisco,  Portola,  377. 

San  Gabriel,  Mission  Play,  377. 

San  Leandro,  Cherry,  377. 

Santa  Clara,  Passion  Play,  377. 

Santa  Cruz,  Orchid,  377. 

Santa  Cruz,  Water,  377. 

Santa  Rosa,  Rose,  377. 

Saratoga,  Blossom,  7,  376. 

Sevastopol,  Apple,  376. 

St.  Helena,  Grape,  376. 

Ukiah,  Hop,  377. 

Vacaville,  Cherry,  376. 

Van  Nuys,  Poppy,  377. 

Venice,  Water,  375. 

Ventura,  San  Miguel,  377. 

Watsonville,  Apple,  376. 
Field,  Charles  K.,  321. 
Filibustering,  139. 
First  Families  of  the  Sierras,  144. 
Fishing,  141,  152. 
Flip,  90. 


Florence  Peak,  116. 

Flower,  Mrs.  Cyril,  v. 

Flowers  of  California,  333-348. 

Wealth  of,  26. 
Flugge,  Carl,  245. 
Flnlc  of  the  Gods,  407. 
Fogs,  90. 
Folsom,  96. 

Fonte,  Bartholomew  de,  viii. 
Forest  Rangers,  328. 
Forest  Reserves  in  California,  328. 
Forests  of  California,  327-332. 
Foreword,  v  et  seq. 
For  the  Soul  of  Raphael,  390. 
Fort  Ross,  127. 
Fort  Yuma,  55. 
Franciscan  Missionaries,  viii. 
Franciscan  Missions  of  Califor- 
nia,   38-63.      {See   also    Mis- 
sions.) 
Francisco,  J.  Bond,  39S. 
Frazee  Castle,  325. 
Freel's  Peak,  118. 
Freeman  Creek,  115. 
Fremont,  xii,  5,  83,  300. 

And  Golden  Gate(q.),  82,  171. 

And  Kearny,  ix. 

Coming  of,  ix,  xii. 

Crossing  Santa  Ines  Mountains, 

.4- 
Discoverer  of  Lake  Tahoe,  235. 

In  Los  Angeles,  267. 

In  Sutter's  Fort,  191. 

Reports,  x. 
French  Explorers  in  California,  ix. 
Fresno,  209,  210,  369,  371. 
Fuca,  Juan  de,  viii. 
Fuji-San  of  California,  12. 
Fullerton,  248. 


Gabilan  Peak,  5,  83. 

Gali,  Francisco,  vii. 

Game  Fishes,  152. 

Garces,  Padre,  299. 

Gauchama,  70. 

Genoa  Peak,  118. 

Gila  River,  551. 

Gill,  Irving  G.,  403. 

Gjoa,  180. 

Glass-Bottomed  Boats,  148. 

Glen  Alpine,  103,  245. 

Glendale,  274. 

Glimpses  of  the  Land,  1-19. 


Index 


423 


Goddard,  Pliny,  on  Indians,  34. 

Goethals,  xiv. 

Gold,    Discovery   of,    ix,   xii,    106, 

172. 
Gold  Seekers  on  Coast,  123. 
Golden  Gate,  8,  9,  128,  171,  179. 

In  and  Around  the,  171-187. 

Park,  179. 
Goldfield,  Nevada,  100. 
Gordon-Cummings,   Miss   (q.),    26, 

loi,  232. 
Goshen  Junction,  115. 
Grand  Canyon,  32,  300,  408  d  seq. 
Granite  Crags  (q.),  loi. 
Grant  Forest,  216. 
Grant  Hotel,  285. 
Grant  National  Park,  216,  330. 
Greeley,  George,  151. 
Griffiths,  Col.  G.  G.,  272. 
Grouse  Meadows,  115. 
Grove,  The,  246. 
Guajome  Rancho,  325. 
Gulf  of  California,  32. 
Gulliver's  Travels,  viii. 


H 


Hale,  George  C,  274,  356. 

Half  Moon  Bay,  41,  121. 

Hall,  Sharlot  M.  (q.),  69. 

Hamadryads,  The,  322. 

Hamilton,   Mt.,   15,   83,    174,    184, 

186,355. 
Happy  Valley,  318. 
Harbours.    {See  Bays.) 
Los  Angeles,  15,  143. 
Harraden,  Beatrice,  324. 
Harriman,  E.  H.,  307. 
Harrison  Pass,  116. 
Harte,  Bret,  ix,  21,  41,  90,  122,  217, 

381.   _ 
Havasupai  Indians,  300. 
Hayfork  Valley,  317. 
Hearst,  Mrs.  Phoebe,  350. 
Hearst,  William  Randolph,  350. 
Heather,  335. 
Heather  Lake,  246. 
Heber,  303. 
Heber,  A.  H.,  305. 
Heights,  On  the,  76-104. 
Helena,  St.,  Mt.,  83. 
Hermosa,  3,  272. 
Heman,  John  J.,  290. 
Hetch-Hetchy  Valley,  13,  93,  216. 
Hetten  Valley,  317. 


Hides,  Trade  in,  xii. 

Highest  Point  in  United  States,  15. 

High  Sierras,  117,  118. 

Hights,  The,  64,  65,  171. 

Hilgard,  E.  W.,  349. 

Hill,  Thomas,  398. 

Holden,  E.  S.,  355. 

Holder,  Charles  Frederick  (q.),  145, 

i6t,  385. 
Hollywood,  267. 
Holmes,  James  H.,  285. 
Holt,  W.  F.,  310. 
Holtville,  303,  310. 
Holy  Cross,  City  of,  41. 
Home-Seekers,  Early,  in  California, 

xii. 
Homewood,  246. 
Honey  Lake  Valley,  317. 
Hooker  Oak,  332. 
Hopland,  316. 

Horticultural  Development,  ix. 
Horton,  A.  E.,  277. 
Hotels: 

Arcadia,  249. 

Arlington,  249,  253. 

Beverley  Hills,  253. 

Casa  Loma,  249. 

Cliff  House,  8. 

Del  Coronado,  79,  249,  280  e^  seq., 

334- 

Del  Monte,  334. 

Fairmont,  8,  182. 

Glenwood,  249,  253. 

Grant,  U.  S.,  278. 

Green,  249. 

Hollywood,  253. 

Horton,  278. 

Painter,  249. 

Palace,  8,  181. 

Potter,  253,  334. 

Raymond,  249,  334,  404. 

Sierra  Madre  Villa,  249. 

St.  Francis,  8,  181. 

Stratford,  253. 

Virginia,  253. 

Windsor,  249. 
Hot  Creek,  318. 
Houseboats,  186. 
Howison,  G.  H.,  349. 
Howland's,  155. 

Hudson  Bay  Company,  122,  138. 
Humboldt  County,  13. 
Humboldt  Valley,  315. 
Hume,  330. 
Hume  Lake,  330. 


424 


Index 


Huntington  Beach,  3,  272. 
Huntington,  H.  E.,  263. 
Hyampom  Valley,  317. 


Immaculate  Conception,  131. 
Imperial  Valley,  14,  loi,  296  etseq., 

303- 
Improvement  Clubs,  347. 
Indian,  California  under  the,  28-37. 
Indian  Feet,  Under  the  Tread 

OF,  28-37. 
Indians: 

Conquest  of,  106. 

Curtin,  J.,  on,  34. 

Of  Desert,  301. 

Goddard,  Pliny,  on,  34. 

Kroeber,  A.  L.,  on,  34. 

Life  of,  at  Missions,  51. 

Merriam,  C.  Hart,  on,  34. 

Powers,  Stephen,  on,  33. 

Trail  makers,  105 ._ 

Uprising  at  San  Diego,  50. 
Industries  of  the  Missions,  51. 
Ines,  Santa,  Mountains,  82. 
Irrigation,  California,  xiii. 

In  Sacramento  Valley,  10. 

Modem,  x. 
Irwin,  Wallace,  382. 
Irwin,  Will,  322. 
Islands.     {See  Channel  Islands.) 
Isles  of  Summer,  145. 
Italy,  Little,  177. 


J 


Jacks  Peak,  118. 

Jackson,  Helen  Hunt,  37,  58,  325, 

346- 
Jamestown,  xvi. 
Jawbone  (Los  Angeles  Aqueduct), 

93-  ,   . 

Jayme,  Padre,  Martyred,  ix. 
Jepson,  W.  L.,  329,  336. 
Jess  Valley,  317. 
Job's  Peak,  118. 
Job's  Sister,  118. 
Johnson,  Captain,  301. 
Jordan,  David  Starr,  76,  77,   117, 

352,  353- 
Jorgensen,  Chris,  117,  398. 
Joshua  Tree,  329,  343. 
Judson,  W.  L.,  397. 
Junction  Meadow,  117. 


K 

Kalmia,  335. 

Kanno,  Gertrude  Boyle,  66. 

Kanno,  Takeshi,  66. 

Kaweah  Canyon,  117. 

Kaweah  Peaks,  116,  117. 

Kearney,  Theodore,  211. 

Kearney  Park,  211. 

Kearny,  Gen.  Stephen,  300,  301. 

And  Fremont,  ix. 

Fight  at  San  Pasqual,  ix. 
Kearsage  Pass,  216. 
Keeler,  355. 

Keeler,  Charles  (q.),  68. 
Keith,  William,  117,  200,  397. 
Kellogg,  J.  H.,  Dr.,  320. 
Kelp  beds,  148. 
Kelso,  Tessa  L.,  Miss,  58. 
Kent,  Congressman,  183. 
Kern  Canyon,  116,  117,  216,  370. 
Kern  County,  165. 
Kern-Kaweah  Canyon,  117. 
Kern  Lakes,  116,  117. 
King,  Clarence  (q.),  84,  117,  380. 
King,  Thomas  Starr  (q.),  200,  239, 

385- 
King's  and  Kern  Divide,  84,  216, 

37°- 
Klamath  Lake,  12. 
Knapp,  Adelaide,  66. 
Kramer  Valley,  14. 
Kroeber,  A.  L.,  on  Indians,  34. 


Laguna,  3,  143- 
Laguna  Dam,  55,  309. 
La  Jolla,  121,  142,  287. 
Lake  Region,  268 
Lakeside,  245. 
Lakes: 

American,  5,  117. 

Clare,  Little,  116. 

Donner,  13. 

Fallen  Leaf,  103. 

Kern,  Big,  116. 

Kern,  Little,  ii6- 

Klamath,  12. 

Moraine,  116,  117. 

Rhett,  16,  17. 

Spaulding,  95,  97. 

Tahoe,  13,  83,  103,  233-247- 
Lake  View  Gusher,  214. 
Langsdorf,  120. 
Langtry,  Mrs.,  v. 


Index 


425 


Land  of  Utile  Rain,  66. 
Land  of  Sunshine  (q.),  58,  59. 
La  Paz,  46. 
La  Perouse,  120. 
Larkin,  Edgar,  274,  356. 
Lassen  Butte,  318,  336. 
Latin  Quarter,  177. 
Latter  Day  Saints,  139. 
Lava  Beds,  16,  318. 
Le  Conte,  Joseph,  108,  219,  349. 
Leese,  Jacob,  180. 
Lemmon,  J.  G.,  329. 
Lemon  Cove,  216. 
Lewis,  E.  G.,  5. 
Lick,  James,  147,  174,  355. 
Lick  Observatory,  15,  186,  355. 
Life  at  the  Missions,  51. 
Life  of  a  Good  Woman,  352. 
Life  Saving  Service,  135,  136,  179. 
Lighthouses,  134,  135. 
Lilac,  California,  337. 
Lillebonne,  135. 
Limon,  Ensign,  300. 
Literature,    Beginnings   of   Califor- 
nia, ix. 
Little  Clare  Lake,  116. 
Little  Hot  Springs,  317. 
Little  Lake  Valley,  316. 
Little  Landers,  326. 
Little  Santa  Anita  Canyon,  iii. 
Location  of  Missions,  59. 
Lodi,  212. 

Loma,  Point,    155,  275  et  seq,  291, 
292,  293. 

Greek  Theatre  on,  292. 
Loma  Prieta,  90,  174,  184. 
Lompoc  Valley,  315. 
Lone  Mountain,  172. 
London,   Jack,  66,   140,   175,   320, 

388,  390. 
Long  Beach,  3,  121,  127,  131,  248. 
Lorenzo,  San,  River,  90. 
Los  Alamos  Valley,  315. 
Los  Angeles,  xvi,  2,  3,  18,  250. 

Advertising,  261. 

Aqueduct,  3,  93. 

Assets  of,  261. 

Climate  of,  261. 

Electricity  in,  98. 

Harbour  of,  15. 

In  and  Around,  261-274. 

Me.xican  pueblo.  A,  261,  267. 

Normal  School,  354. 

Parks,  272. 

Water  Supply,  92. 


Lowe,  T.  S.  C,  263,  273,  355. 

Lowe,  Mount,  xi,  273,  355. 

Lowe  Observatory,  355. 

Lower  California,  38. 

Lowest  Point  in  United  States,  15. 

Lucia,  Santa,  Mountains,  83. 

Lumber,  2x4. 

lAimber  Flume,  215. 

Lummis,  Charles  F.  (q.),  58,  59. 

Lyon  Peak,  79. 

M 

MacLaren,  John,  179. 

Mad  River  Valley,  317. 

Madre,  Sierra,  iii. 

Maldonado,  viii. 

Manhattan,  3,  272. 

Man  with  the  Hoe,  66. 

Manzanita,  337. 

Mare  Island,  174. 

Marin  County,  174,  323. 

Mariposa  Lily,  338. 

Market,  South  of,  176. 

Markham,  Edwin,  66,  384. 

Marlette  Lake,  118. 

Marlette  Peak,  118. 

Marshall,  John,  10,  172,  189,  191. 

Martyrdom  of  Padre  Jayme,  ix. 

Marysville,  xvi,  11,  195. 

Matilija  Poppy,  338. 

Matilija  Spring,  4. 

Maxwell,  11. 

McClaughry,   Mrs.  Anita  B.,   244, 

259- 
McCloud  River,  198,  318,  367 
McClurg,  A.  C.,  &  Company,  145. 
McCormick,  Miss,  398. 
McGroarty,  John  S.,  390. 
McKinneys,  246. 
McTeague  (q.),  386. 
Meadows,  Grouse,  115. 
Meadows,  Lloyd,  115. 
Mendocino,  Cape,  vii,  132. 
Mendocino  County,  13. 
Mendoza,  Viceroy,  132. 
Merced,  216,  369. 
Merle,  Martin  V.,  352. 
Merriam,  C.  Hart,  34. 
Merritt,  Lake,  185. 
Mexican  Government,  apology  to, 

ix. 
Michaelis,  R.,  103. 
Midwinter  Fair,  179. 
Military  Invasion,  xii. 


426 


Index 


Millard,  Bailey  (q.),  337- 
Miller,  Frank,  253. 
Miller,  Juanita,  65. 
Miller  and  Lux  Ranch,  5. 
Miller,  Joaquin,  v,  ix,  23,  65,  164, 
171,  200,  217,  321,  381. 

Meeting  with  Mrs.  Langtry,  v. 

Quoted  on  oxen,  54;    prophecy, 
64;   San  Diego,  39,  166;   Sierra 
Nevadas,  13,  65;    Mt.  Shasta, 
196. 
Millionaires  of  a  Day,  278. 
Mills,  Cyrus  T.,  354. 
Mills  College,  354. 
Minarets,  201. 
Mining  Camps,  ix. 
Missions,    Franciscan,    of   Cali- 
fornia, 38-63. 

American  Attitude  towards,  57. 

Architecture,  63,  400. 

Bells  of  San  Gabriel  (q.),  57. 

Carmelo  Rio  (San  Carlos),  62. 

Colorado  River,  55. 

Dolores,  123  {See  San  Francisco). 

Indians,  301. 

Industries  at,  52. 

Landmarks  Club,  Work  of,  for. 

La  Purisima  Concepcion,  55,  56, 

61. 
Life  at,  51. 
Location  of,  59. 
Preserving  the,  58. 

*  San  Antonio,  61. 
'San  Buenaventura,  60. 
*San  Carlos  Borromeo,  62. 

^San  Diego,  40,  50,  59. 
^San  Fernando  Rey,  60. 
^San  Francisco  de  Assisi,  63. 
^San  Francisco  Solano,  62. 
^San  Gabriel,  60,  62,  267,  298. 

San  Jose,  62. 
^  San  Juan  Bautista,  62. 
^  San  Juan  Capistrano,  60. 

*  San  Luis,  Obispo,  61. 
^San  Luis,  Rey,  60. 

San  Miguel,  61. 
^San  Pedro,  55. 
^San  Rafael,  62. 
**  Santa  Barbara,  60. 
/* Santa  Clara,  62. 
^  Santa  Cruz,  41,  62. 
^  Santa  Ines,  61. 
Secularization  of,  56. 
^Sonoma,  50. 


Mocking-bird,  378. 
Modesto-Turlock  Irrigation,  213. 
Modoc  County,  16,  108. 
Modoc  Indians,  17. 
Mofras,  De  (q.),  68. 
Mohave  Desert,  13,  14,  249. 
Mohave  Indians,  301. 
Mohave  Vallej'',  14,  252. 
Mokelumne  River,  212. 
Mono  Desert,  336. 
Mono  Lake,  372. 
Monrovia,  248,  258. 
Montalvo,  Ordonez  de,  vi. 
Montara,  41,  121,  183. 
Montecito,  4. 
Monte  Negro,  161. 
Monte  Rio,  321. 
Monterey,  122,  143,  182,  370. 

Bay,  named,  ix,  15,  41,  50,  131. 

Count  of,  131. 

Flag  Raised,  ix. 
Montgomery,  Captain,  180. 
Montgomery,  Professor,  352. 
Moraine  Lake,  116,  117. 
Morena  Dam,  283. 
Mormons,  139. 
Morris,  Madge,  386. 
Moses,  Bernard,  349. 
Mosquito  Pass,  104. 
Mountaineering  in  the  Sierras,  76, 

380. 
Mountain  View,  186. 
Mountains  and  Electricity,  94. 

And  Water,  92. 
Mountains  of  California: 

Agassiz,  118. 

Chuckawalla,  81. 

Climate  Breeders,  As,  91. 

Cloud's  Rest,  118. 

Coast  Range,  14,  15 

Compared  with  Alps,  76,  79. 

Cucamonga,  82. 

Cuyamaca,  79,  80,  81. 

Diablo,  15,  S3. 

Dicks,  118. 

Freels,  118. 

Great  Western  Divide,  116. 

Hamilton,  15,  83. 

In  Winter,  loi. 

Jacks,  118. 

Job's,  118. 

Job's  Sister,  118. 

Loma  Prieta,  90. 

Mountains  of  California  (q.),  234. 

Needham,  116. 


Index 


427 


Mountains  of  California: 

On  Mountain  Trails,  105-119. 

Palomar,  79,  80. 

Pyramid,  118. 

Richardson,  118. 

Ritter,  86. 

Rose  (Nevada),  103. 

San  Anlonio,  82. 

San  Bernardino,  80,  82. 

San  Gorgonio,  2,  80,  81. 

San  Jacinto,  2,  80,  82. 

San  Miguel,  79. 

Santa  Ines,  82. 

Santa  Lucia,  5,  83,  131. 

Santa  Lucia  Peak,  83. 

Santa  Ynez.    {Sec  Ines.) 

Santiago,  82. 

Shasta,  12,  15,  16,  83,  196. 

Sierra  Madre,  in. 

Sierra  Nevada,  13,  115. 

Siskiyous,  83,  196. 

Starr  King,  118. 

St.  Helena,  15,  83. 

Tahoe  Region,  of,  84,  118. 

Tallac,  118. 

Tamalpais,  9,  15,  83,  183,  323. 

Topatopa,  82. 

Tyndall,  84. 

Watson,  118. 

Whitney,  15,  78,  84. 

Wilson,  III. 
Mountains   of  California,    76,    90, 

234,  380. 
Mt.  Lowe  Railway,  60. 
Mt.  St.  Helena,  319. 
Mud  Baths,  5. 
Muir,  John,  76,  86,  117,  329,  335, 

.336,  380. 
Muir  Lodge,  113. 
Muir  Woods,  183,  323. 
Mussel  Rock,  136. 
My  First  Summer  in  Sierras,  76,  380. 


N 


Napa  Valley,  83,  319. 

Natotna,  321. 

Needham  Mountain,  116. 

Neighbours,  314. 

Nelson's  Ranch,  115. 

Nereocystis,  148. 

New  Albion,  vii. 

Neic'brasky's  Fertile  Shore  (q.),  21. 

New  Pictures  from  California  (q.),  5. 

Newport,  3,  272. 


New  River,  307. 

Newspaper,  California's  first,  139. 

Nileland,  303. 

Nob  Hill,  172. 

Nobili,  John,  351. 

Noguchi,  Yone,  66. 

Normal  Schools,  State,  354. 

Norris,  P'rank,  xiii,  66,  204,  386. 


O 


Oakland,  xvi,  9,  18,  62,  174,  184. 

Oakland  Mole,  8. 

Observatory,  Mt.  Rose,  103. 

Observatory  Point,  355. 

Occidental  College,  354. 

Ocean,  121. 

Ocean  Beach,  142. 

Ocean  Park,  3,  121,  248,  272. 

Ocean  Shore  Railway,  183. 

Ocotillo,  341. 

Octopus,  149. 

Octopus  (by  Frank  Norris),  (q.),  204 

et  seq. 
Oil,  Discovery  of,  x,  214. 
Oil  Gushers,  214. 
Ojai  Valley,  3,  82. 
Old  Town  (San  Diego),  60. 
Olives,  194. 
Olj'mpic  Club,  179. 
On  the  di ffiq.),  120. 
Ontario,  248,  258. 
Open  Air  Theatres,  148,  350,  375. 
Orange,  248. 
Orchids,  338. 
Oregon  (battleship),  141. 
Oregon  Boundary,  12. 
Orland,  11,  194. 
Oroville,  11,  192,  362. 
Ostrich  Farm,  271. 
Otay  Dam,  282. 
Our  Italv,  2S7,  345. 
Out  Wes't  (q.),  58. 
Ouzel  Basin,  77. 
Overland  Monthly  founded,  ix. 
Overland  Stage,  ix. 
Owen's  Lake,  84,  372. 
Owen's  River,  3,  92,  100. 
Oxnard,  3,  248. 


Pacific  Gas  and  Electric  Company, 

97- 
Pacific  Grove,  15. 


428 


Index 


Pacific  Ocean,  251. 

Pacific,  Trans-,  shipping,  143. 

Packing  for  trails,  109. 

Painted  Cave,  158. 

Painted  Desert,  300. 

Painted  Indians,  240. 

Pajaro  Valley,  5. 

Palace  Hotel,  8,  181. 

Palm  Dale,  252. 

Palm  Springs,  301. 

Palm  Springs  Canyon,  301,  330. 

Palo  Alto,  8,  186,331. 

Palomar  Mountains,  79,  80. 

Palo  Verde,  314. 

Palo  Verde  Mesa,  314. 

Palo  Verde  Valley,  314. 

Pamoosa  Canyon,  325. 

Panama  Canal,  xix,  144.. 

Panama  Exposition,  x,  172. 

Parnassus  Mountain,  172. 

Parrish,  Maxfield,  182. 

Parsons,  Miss,  341,  344. 

Pasadena,  60,  248,  258. 

Tournament  of  Roses,  xi,  164. 
Paso  Robles,  5. 
Pass,  Harrison,  116,  117. 
Pass,  San  Gorgonio,  2,  14. 
Patterson,  213. 
Peninsula  of  Lower  California,  vii, 

38. 
Peninsula  of  San  l-rancisco,  186. 
Perez,  Captain,  49. 
Perouse,  La,  120. 
Perrine,  355. 
Perris  Valley,  loi. 
Petaluma  Valley,  323. 
Pico,  Pio,  147. 
Piedmont,  62,  184,  185. 
Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin,  182. 
Pinchot,  Cape,  155. 
Pinchot,  Gifford,  328. 
Pine  Forest  of  Monterey,  382. 
Pioneers,  before  Discovery  of  Gold, 

ix. 
Pit,  The,  206. 
Pitcher,  Miss  Anna  E.,  58. 
Pitcher  Plants,  344. 
Pitt  River  Valley,  317. 
Pizmo,  121. 
Placer  Mining,  191. 
Playa  del  Rey,  3,  272. 
Phelan,  James  D.,  352. 
Phelps,  W.  D.,  Capt.,  120. 
Poet  of  the  Sierras,  64.    {See  Joaquin 

Miller.) 


Point  Concepcion,  131,  161. 

Point  Diablo,  158. 

Point  Lobos,  28. 

Point  Loma,  155. 

Point  Mendocino,  132. 

Point  Pinos,  134. 

Point  Reyes,  132. 

Point   Reyes  Life   Saving  Station, 

136. 
Polo,  290. 
Pomona,  248,  274. 
Pomona  College,  354. 
Pony  Express,  ix. 
Popp3^  California,  339. 
Population,  Romance  of,  xiv. 
Porterv'ille,  216. 
Portola,  Caspar,  viii,  8,  40,  44. 
Portsmouth  (sloop),  180. 
Portsmouth  Square,  180. 
Potter  Hotel,  4. 
Potter  Valley,  316. 
Poway  Valley,  325. 
Powell,  Major  J.  W.,  197. 
Powers,  Stephen,  ^2>- 
Pratt,  Julius  H.  (q.),  127. 
Preciado,  vii. 
Presidio,  8,  176. 
Price,  W.  W.,  Prof.,  245. 
Prophecy,  California  the  Land 

OF,  64,  172. 
Pumping,  252. 
Punta  de  los  Reyes,  132. 
Purisima  Concepcion,  La,  Mission 

of,  61. 
Pyramid  Peak,  118. 


Quincy,  344. 


R 


Rabbit  Drives,  207. 

Rainfall,  91. 

Railway,  Central  Pacific,  ix. 

Raisin  Day,  210. 

Raja- Yoga  College,  291,  292. 

Ramona,  37,  58,  133,  254,  325. 

Randolph,  Epes,  308. 

Rannels,  314. 

Raymond  and  Whitcomb,  249. 

Realf,  Richard,  384. 

Rebellion  of  Indians,  50. 

Reclamation  of  Desert,  x. 

Reclamation    Service,   U.   S.,   194, 


Index 


429 


Red  Bluflf,  12. 

Redding,  200. 

Redding,  J.  D.,  321. 

Redlands,  248,  249. 

Redondo,  3,  121,  248,  272. 

Red  Rock  Tunnel,  93. 

Redwood,  186. 

Redwood,  Habitat  of  the,  331. 

Redwood  Mountain,  330. 

Redwood  Park,  90. 

Redwood  Valley,  316. 

Reyes,  Point,  vii. 

Rezanof,  121,  122. 

Rhett  Lake,  j6,  17. 

Ricard,  Father,  352. 

Richards,  Judge,  129. 

Richardson,  Mrs.  Alice,  253. 

Richardson  Peak,  118. 

Richmond,  174,  184. 

Rincon  Hill,  172. 

Rio  Carmelo,  62. 

Ritter,  Mt.,  86. 

Rivera,  Captain,  56,  300. 

Riverside,  248,  258,  404. 

Road  of  a  Thousand  Wonders,  3,  8. 

Rockwood,  303. 

Rockwood,  C.  R.,  304. 

Roeding,  G.  C,  312. 

Romance  of  California,  x,  20. 

Rookeries,  Sea  Lion,  150. 

Roosevelt,  President  Theodore,  307, 

328,  350- 
Rose,  Mt.,  Observatory,  103. 
Ross,  Fort,  127,  128. 
Rothschild,  Lady  Constance,  v. 
Round  Valley,  316. 
Rubicon  River,  103,  118. 
Rubio  Canyon,  273. 
Russians    in    California,    ix,    127, 

128. 
Russian  Hill,  172. 
Russian  River,  127,  128. 
Russian  River  Valley,  321. 
Ryan,  Marah  Ellis,  390,  407. 


Sacramento,  9,  10,  165,  189,  369. 
Sacramento    to    Kern    through 

THE    San    Joaquin    Valley, 

204-217.    ' 
Sacramento  to  Mt.  Shasta,  188- 

203. 
Sacramento  River,  11,  12,  174,  194, 

196,  198,  200,  316,  368. 


Sacramento  Valley,  10,  11,  12,  14, 
83,  165,  188,  193,  200,  369. 

Salinas  Valley,  5. 

Salter,  N.  L.,  245. 

Sal  ton  Basin  and  Sea,  i,  15,  80, 
81. 

San  Antonio,  Mission,  61. 

San  Antonio,  Mountain,  82. 

San  Antonio  (ship),  45. 

San  Bernardino,  70. 

San  Bernardino,  County,  165. 

San  Bernardino,  Mountain,  2,  80. 

San  Buenaventura,  3,  60,  82.  {See 
also  Ventura.) 

San  Carlos  Borromeo,  Mission,  62, 

131- 
San  Carlos  (ship),  46. 
San  Clemente,  4,  131,  146,  153,  154, 

156. 
San  Diego,  vii,  39,  70,  123,  142,  143, 
258. 

Age  of,  xvi. 

And  Eastern  Railway,  285,  303. 

Bay  of,  14,  28,  143,  277. 

Climate  of,  166,  251,  276. 

Growth  of,  18,  276. 

Horton,  A.  E.,  277. 

Martyrdom  of  Father  Jayme,  ix. 

Named,  131. 

Normal  School,  354. 

Old  Town,  60. 

Pan-California  Exposition,  285  et 
seq. 

Point  Loma,  292. 

Raja- Yoga  College,  291  e^  seq. 

River,  60. 

Roads,  284. 

Spanish  Lighthouse,  292. 

Theosophical  Headquarters,  291 
ei  seq. 

Uprising  of  Indians,  50. 

Water  Supply,  283. 
San  Fernando,  60,  274. 
San  Fernando  Valley,  3,  14. 
San  Francisco,  8,  173,  299. 

Barbary  Coast,  176. 

Bay  of,  8,  13,  136,  138,  140,  141, 
143,  172,  175;  Discovery  of, 
ix,  42,  298. 

Beach  Boulevard,  179. 

Beginnings  of,  181. 

Burnham's  Plans  for,  175. 

Cemetery,  181. 

China  Basin,  176. 

Chinatown,  176. 


430 


Index 


San  Francisco: 

Cliff  House,  176,  182. 

Climate,  375. 

Coolbrith,  Ina  (q.),  75. 

Development  of,  ix,  175. 

Divisions  of,  175. 

Eldredge,  Zoeth,  iSi. 

Fairmont  Hotel,  182. 

Ferry  Building,  176. 

First  Child  Born,  180. 

Fourth  of  July,  First  Celebration, 
180. 

Gold  Seekers  arrive  at,  123,  124. 

Golden  Gate  Park,  179. 

Harte,  Bret  (q.),  75- 

Hunter's  Pt.  Dry  Dock,  176. 

Little  Italy,  176. 

Midwinter  Fair,  179. 

Mission  of,  62,  181. 

Night  Time  at,  182. 

North  Beach,  175. 

Oregon  built,  141. 

Palace  Hotel,  182. 

Poet  Mayor  (E.  R.  Taylor),  176. 

Port  of  (Drake's  Bay),  43. 

Presidio  District,  176. 

Residences  in,  176. 

Sand  lot  agitation,  181. 

Situation  of,  173. 

South  of  Market,  175. 

Stevenson  Monument,  181. 

Sutherland,  H.  V.  (q.),  75- 

Taylor,  B.  (q.),  74- 

Union  Iron  Works,  176. 

Union  Square,  181. 

Water  Front,  175. 

Water  Supply,  93- 
San  Francisco  Solano,  62. 
San  Gabriel  Mission,  60. 
San  Gabriel  Valley,  14,  in. 
San  Gorgonio  Mountain,  2,  14,  80, 

81. 
San  Gorgonio  Pass,  306  et  seq. 
San  Jose,  xvi,  184,  186. 

Normal  School,  354. 
San  Jose  Mission,  62. 
San  Joaquin  River,  212,  213. 
San  Joaquin  Valley,  14,  204-217, 

371- 
San    Joaquin   VaUey     Mountains, 

216. 
San  Juan  Bautista  Mission,  62 
San  Juan  Capistrano,  60,  390. 
San  Juan  Capistrano  Point,  143. 
San  Lorenzo  River,  90. 


San  Luis,   Obispo,    Mission,  5,  61, 

70,  143- 
San  Luis,  Rey,  60. 
San  Luis  Rey  Valley,  325. 
San  Mateo,  186. 

San  Miguel  Island,  130,  147,  161. 
San  Miguel- Mission,  5,  61. 
San  Miguel  Mountain,  79. 
San  Nicolas  Island,  146. 
San  Pedro,  3,  123,  131,  272. 
San  Pedro  Point,  160. 
San  Rafael,  62. 
San  Rafael  Valley,  323. 
San  Sebastian,  Cabo  Blanco,  132. 
Sanel  Valley,  316. 
Sanger,  216. 
Santa  Ana,  248. 
Santa  Ana  Sierra,  82. 
Santa  Barbara,  xvi,  4,  60,  70,  121, 

142,  258. 
Santa  Barbara  Island,  146. 
Santa  Barbara  Rock,  146,  156. 
Santa   Catalina,  4,   127,    131,   146, 

147, 156. 
Santa  Clara  County,  62,  174,  186. 
Santa  Clara  University,  351. 
Santa  Clara  Valley  (near  San  Jose), 

5>8,  371- 

(Near  Ventura),  14. 
Santa  Cruz,   15,  41,  62,   121,  142- 
146,  182,  333,  337,  370- 

(Lower  California),  viii. 
Santa  Cruz  Island,  146,   150,   157, 

160. 
Santa  Cruz  Mountains,  90,  184,  370. 
Santa  Fe  Railway,  270. 
Santa  Ines,  4,  61. 
Santa  Ines  Mountains,  82. 
Santa  Lucia  Mountains,  5,  83,  131. 
Santa  Monica,  3,  248,  272. 
Santa  Paula,  248. 
Santa  Rosa,  320. 
Santa  Rosa  Island,  146,  161. 
Santa  Susanna  Tunnels,  3. 
Santiago  Mountain,  82. 
Sarcodes  sanguinea,  346. 
Sausalito,  174. 
Sawtooth  Peak,  116. 
Scheli'auer,  Herman,  322. 
Scherer,  James  A.  B.,  354. 
Scott  Valley,  317. 
Scripps,  284. 
Sea  Cucumbers,  149. 
Sea  Lions,  150,  159. 
Sea  Urchins,  149. 


Index 


431 


Seal  Rocks,  178. 

Seal  Rock  House,  178. 

Seals,  150,  159,  178. 

Secularization  of  Missions,  56. 

Seeley,  303. 

Sequoia  Gigantea,  77,  216,  329. 

Sequoia  Sempervirens,  329. 

Serra,  Junipero,  viii,  40,  42,  50,  70. 

Sespe,  82. 

Sevastopol,  127,  320. 

Seventh  Day  Adventists,  319. 

Shad  OIL'S  of  Sliasta,  200. 

Sharp's  Heading,  306. 

Shasta  County,  165,  195. 

Shasta  Daisy,  335. 

Shasta  Mountain,   12,   16,  83,   115, 

195,  199,  200,  201. 
Shasta  Springs,  115,  201. 
Shasta  Valley,  316. 
Shepard,  Mrs.  Theo.  B.,  xiv. 
Sherman,  267. 
Sherman,  Moses  H.,  263. 
Ship  of  Ihe  Desert  (q.),  65. 
Ships  That  Pass  in  the  Night,  324. 
Shoal  of  Cortes,  146,  154. 
Sierra  Club,  iii,  113. 
Sierra  Madre,  28,  iii. 
Sierra  Nevadas,  3,  13,  15,  77,  83, 

84,  107,  io8,  IIS,  117.  174,  216, 

372. 
Motoring  in,  369. 
Sierran  Counties,  318. 
Sill.  E.  R.  (q.),  167,  3  9,  383- 
Silsbee,  303. 

Silverado  Squatters,  15,  83,  319,  36S. 
Simpson,  120,  121. 
Siskiyous,  12,  83,  196. 
Skylark,  Ode  to,  23. 
Slickens,  191. 
Smoke  Tree,  343. 
Smugglers,  146. 
Smythe,  W.  E.,  326. 
Snark,  175. 
Snow  Carnival,  102. 
Snow  Plant,  346. 
Snow  Shoe  Thompson,  102. 
Soda  Creek  and  Canyon,  116. 
Solano  (ferryboat),  9. 
Solar  Salt  Works,  283. 
Soledad  Mission,  61. 
Solitude  Desirable,  16. 
Son  of  the  Wolf,  389. 
Sons  of  Baldur,  322. 
Songs  of  El  Dorado,  68. 
Songs  of  Golden  Gate,  8. 


Sonoma,  50,  184,  320,  368. 

Sonoma  County,  127,  184. 

Sonoma  Valley,  320. 

Sonora,  xvi. 

Soul  in  Bronze,  A,  391. 

South  American  Lake,  117. 

South  Fork  Valley,  317. 

South  Middle  Fork   (Tule  River), 

US- 
South  Pasadena,  274. 
South  Sea  Idylls,  175. 
South  Yuba  Water  Company,  95. 
Southern  Pacific  Railway,  i. 
Southwestern  Corner  of  United 

States,  275-293. 
Souvenirs  of  Los  Angeles,  270. 
Spalding,  Mr.,  284. 
Spaulding  Lake,  9s,  97. 
Spears,  Nathan,  138. 
Splendid  Idle  Forties,  ix. 
Sport  (Fishing),  142. 
Spreckles,  John  D.,  279,  284. 
Springvillc,  iis- 
Squaw  Peak,  118. 
Squaw  Valley,  316. 
St.  Francis  Hotel,  8. 
St.  Helena  Mountain,  is,  83,  319, 

368. 
St.  Helena  Sanitarium,  319. 
Stanislaus  River,  213. 
Stanford,  Jane  L.,  352. 
Stanford,  Leland,  Jr.,  University,  8, 

352. 
Starfish,  149. 

Starr  King  Mountain,  118. 
State  Highway  Commission,  360  ct 

seq. 
State  University,  9. 
Steer's  Head,  336. 
Stephens,  Henry  Morse,  351. 
Sterling,  George,  66,  121,  321,  339. 
Stevenson,  R.  L.,  is,  83,  146,  17s, 

181,  319. 
Stockton,  xvi,  212,  369. 
Stoddard,  Charles  Warren,  S7)  68, 

175- 
Storms  on  California  Coast,  137. 
Strait  of  Anian,  viii. 
Strawberry  Hill,  172. 
Strawberry  Valley,  316. 
Sugar  Loaf,  147. 
Summer  Climate,  170. 
Sunset  Magazine,  321. 
Sunset  Route,  i. 
"  Sunshine  "  Williams,  7. 


432 


Index 


Surprise  Valley,  io8. 
Sutherland,  H.  V.  (q.),  75- 
Sutro,  Adolph,  136,  174. 
Sutro  Baths,  179. 
Sutro  Heights,  174,  179. 
Sutter,  Captain,  ix,  128,  16 
Sutter  County,  11. 
Sutter,  Fort,  9,  190. 
Sweat  Boxes,  211. 
Swift,  Dean,  viii. 
Swift,  Dr.  Lewis,  273. 
Sylva  of  California,  330. 
Symons,  Gardner,  398. 


Tahoe,  Lake,  13,  84,  118,  235,  247, 

335>  iS(^^  355>  372- 
Tahoe  Lake,  The  Region,   235- 

247. 
Tahoe  Tavern,  244,  355. 
Tales  of  the  Fish  Patrol,  140. 
Tallac,  Mt.,  118,  244. 
Tamalpais,  Mt.,  9,  83,  173,  183;  323. 
Tanner's  Bank,  146,  153,  154. 
Taylor,  Bayard  (q.),  5,  67,  74,  382. 
Taylor,  E.  R.  (q.),  176. 
Tehachipi  Range,  14. 
Tehama  County,  12. 
Telegraph  Hill,  172. 
Tenaya  Canyon,  118. 
Thermal  Belts,  214. 
Throop,  Amos  G.,  354. 
Throop  College,  354. 
Through  Ramona's  Country,  164. 
Tia  Juana,  248. 
Tiburon,  174,  186. 
Tingley,  Mme.  Katherine,  291. 
Todos  Santos,  50. 
Togo,  Hashamura,  382. 
Toll  House,  368. 
Tomales  Bay,  142,  183. 
Tonopah, 100. 
Topatopa  Mountain,  82. 
Tournament  of  Roses,  xi. 
Trails,  On  Mountain,  105-119. 

Great  Era  of,  107. 
Trail  makers,  The  first,  105. 
Trail,  Packing  for  the,  109. 
Trans-Pacific  Shipping,  143. 
Trees,  Big,  115. 
Tribes  of  California  (q.),  34. 
Trinity  Valley,  317. 
Triumph  of  Bohemia,  322. 
Trout,  Golden,  216, 


Truckee  River,  118,  244. 

Tubac,  298. 

Tubatama,  300. 

Tula  River,  115. 

Tuna  Club,  152. 

Tunnels,  Elizabeth  Lake,  93. 

Red  Rock,  93. 
Tuolumne  River,  213. 
Twain,  Mark,  ix,  175,  217,  382. 

(q.),  on  Lake  Tahoe,  236-239. 
Twin  Peaks,  172. 
Two  Years  Before  the  Mast,  xii,  132. 
Tyndall,  Mount,  84,  85,  86. 

U 

Ukiah  Valley,  316. 

Ulloa,  vii. 

Unt3er  the  Tread  of  Indian  Feet, 

28-37. 
Union  Square,  181. 
Universal   Brotherhood  and   Theo- 

sophical  Society,  291. 
Universities,  Colleges  and  Ob- 
servatories,     California's, 
349-358- 
Santa  Clara,  351. 
Southern  California,  353. 
State,  9,  185,  349. 
Stanford,  Leland,  Jr.,  8. 


Valdez  Cueva,  160. 

Vancouver,  120. 

Van  Dyke,  John  C,  386. 

Van  D\'ke,  Theodore,  91,  278,  345. 

Velasco,  Luis  de,  131. 

Vendome  Hotel,  186. 

Venice,  3,  121,  248,  272. 

Ventura,    14,    248.      {See  also  San 

Buenaventura.) 
Vigilantes  Committee,  ix,  181. 
Vila,  Captain,  46. 
Vineyards,  209. 
Visalia,  216. 
Vizcaino,    vii,  39,  43,    50,  65,  120, 

147,  148. 
Volcan  Peak,  79. 
Volcano  Lake,  306. 

W 

Wagner,  Harr,  41. 

Waite,  E.  G.,  139. 

Walker,  Wm.,  139,  140. 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  287,  345. 


Index 


433 


Warner  Spur  of  Sierras,  io8. 

Washoe  Indians,  240. 

Water  Front  in  San  Francisco,  175. 

Water  King  in  California,  xiii. 

Watson,  Bob,  103. 

Watson,  Mt.,  118. 

Watsonville,  5. 

Weed,  12. 

Wendt,  William  and  Julia  B.,  398. 

Westmoreland,  303. 

Whales  and  Whaling,  127. 

Wheat  King  in  California,  xiii. 

Wheatland,  11.. 

Wheeler,  Benjamin  Ide,  349. 

Whitaker,  Herman,  66. 

White,  Mrs.  E.  G.,  319. 

White,  Stephen  M.,  352. 

White  Fang,  389. 

Whiting,  Lillian,  2. 

Whitney   Mt.,  15,  78,  84. 

Whittier,  274. 

Wild  Flowers  of  California  (q.),  341. 

Wilkes,  Commander,  138. 

Williams,  11. 

Williams,  Rev.  E.  S.,  7. 

Willows,  II. 

Wilmington,  3. 

Wilson,  Mt.,  Ill,  274,  356. 

Winehaven,  184. 

Wineries,  211. 

Winter  Climate,  168. 

Winter  in  Mountains,  107. 

Woodland,  11. 

Worth,  The  Winning  of  Barbara,  310. 

Wozencroft,  Dr.,  301. 

Wright,  Harold  Bell,  310. 


Yaw,  Ellen  Beach,  325. 
Yerba  Buena,  123,  138. 
Yerba  Buena  Island,  174. 
Ynez,  Santa.    (See  Santa  Ines.) 
Yolo,  II. 

Yosemite  Trails,  76. 
YosEMiTE  Valley,  13,  22,  76,  118, 
2i6,_  218-234,  336,  348,  380. 

Autos  in,  231. 

Best,  H.  C,  224. 

Bridal  Veil  Falls,  220. 

Camp  Ahwahnee,  223. 

Camp  Curry,  227. 

Camp  Lost  Arrow,  224. 

Camping  Trips,  228. 

Cathedral  Rock  and  Spires,  222. 


Yosemite  Valley: 

Cap  of  Liberty,  226. 

Cascades,  224,  226. 

Chilnualna  Falls,  231. 

Coffman's  Livery,  228. 

Coulterville  Road  into,  231. 

El  Capitan,  219,  220. 

El  Portal,  228. 

Foresta,  228. 

Glacial  Lakes,  231. 

Glacier  Point,  223,  226,  227,  231. 

Gordon-Cummings  (q.),  232. 

Half  Dome,  225. 

Happy  Isles,  219,  226. 

Hill,  Thomas,  231. 

Illilouette  Canyon,  225. 

Illilouette  Falls,  226. 

Inspiration  Point,  220. 

Jorgensen,  Chris.,  224. 

Kline,  F.  A.,  232. 

Lower  Fall,  224. 

Mariposa  Grove,  230. 

Merced  Canyon,  225,  226,  232. 

Merced  River,  225. 

Mirror  Lake,  225. 

Nevada  Falls,  226. 

North  Dome,  225. 

Pompompasus,  222. 

Royal  Arches,  225. 

Sentinel  Dome,  223. 

Sentinel  Hotel,  224. 

Sierras  in  Winter,  232. 

Signal  Peak,  231. 

Tenaya  Canyon,  225. 

Tenaya  Creek,  225. 

Three  Brothers,  222. 

Three  Graces,  222. 

Upper  Yosemite  Falls,  224. 

Vernal  Falls,  226. 

Washburn  Brothers,  230.  , 

Washington  Column,  225. 

Watkins,  Mt.,  225. 

Wawona,  230. 

Yosemite  Fall,  223. 

Yosemite  Valley  Railway,  232. 
Young,  Brigham,  139. 
Yuba  City,  11. 
Yuba  County,  11. 
Yuba  River,  11. 

Yuba  South,  Water  Company,  95. 
Yucca  Mohaviensis,  329,  342. 
Yucca  Whipplei,  340. 
Yuma,  309. 
Yuma,  Fort,  55. 
Yuma  Indians,  55,  298. 


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